“On the 18th, we will launch the new National Strategy for Tourism, called ET35,” announced Pedro Machado, at the opening of the 50th National Congress of the Portuguese Association of Travel Agencies and Tourism (APAVT) in Macau, which runs until Thursday.
The Secretary of State was addressing an audience of over 1,000 tourism professionals at what is considered the largest congress in the sector, which has chosen Macau as its venue for the sixth time.
“Due to the sustainable growth tourism has witnessed over the years – growth that I hope remains far from the plateau announced – it is important to note that it probably serves as an example for the country: from Ernâni Lopes with 20 national tourism products, to the Strategic Plan for National Tourism, featuring the 10 Strategic Products 2006-2017, the Strategy 14-20, and particularly the 20-27 with Manuel Caldeira Cabral (…), tourism has been a model of predictability, consistency, and stability, which are absolutely essential for the operators in this room, especially the private operators,” he said.
Pedro Machado assured that the ongoing work aims “not to undermine” the achieved results.
“We are conducting this serious discussion. We have done it nationally across the seven regions, involving more than two thousand people from academia, the private sector, the public sector, and the local sector. We are currently, I would say, fine-tuning in a serious and responsible discussion with the Portuguese Tourism Confederation. We want the 12 measures or the 12 programs we will launch on the 18th to precisely reinforce this meeting of wills already expressed here today,” he emphasized.
According to Turismo de Portugal, the process of developing the 2035 Tourism Strategy has been carried out in collaboration with all public and private partners of the tourism ecosystem and, due to its thematic and geographic transversality, with partners intersecting with tourism in various regions. This process included a Cycle of Conferences under the theme “Building the Tourism of the Future,” which traveled through all the country’s tourist regions.
“We want to grow in value, increase capacity, improve qualification and tourist experience. We aim for more cohesion and greater resident satisfaction. This is the virtuous triangle on which strategy 35 is based, particularly a strategy of value creation, Gross Added Value, but primarily with a focus on value creation,” Pedro Machado highlighted today.
