Portugal is aiming to build on rising tourist numbers from Ireland in 2017, with Antonio Padeira, director of the Portuguese Tourist Board for Ireland, saying visitor numbers from this country “are higher than before the crash”.
Irish visitor numbers hit 260,000 for the first three-quarters of 2016, but Mr Padeira said this covers recorded bed nights only. The Airbnb sector is slowly coming into the official statistics, with 60% of home renters signing up to be part of the official stats. But the country struggled this year with a shortage of hotel beds to keep up with demand, and he said tour operators are booking bed banks earlier for next year’s peak season.
Portugal has been working with airlines to improve access to the Algarve to push hiking and surfing in the shoulder seasons, and Antonio Padeira welcomed Aer Lingus’s thrice-weekly new route to Porto, starting in March. “I strongly believe that the city will be the hotspot in 2017,” he said.
Portugal’s ambassador to Ireland, Bernardo Futscher Pereira, and Celina Tavares, who heads up the tourist board in Dublin, also attended the end-of-year event in Dublin.
