The Lisbon Travel Market (BTL) took place from 12 to 16 March 2025 at FIL in Parque das Nações, Lisbon. Here are five takeaways from the event:
- You would not know it from BTL, but Alentejo gets only 1pc of the tourists who travel to Portugal from Ireland and 0.8pc from the rest of the world. Byword for good wine and food, they provided the opening dinner and wine on Tuesday night and had a delicious presence in the pavilion through the event. Alentejo is green and sustainable tourism turned into a giant, hill-rolled region.
- TAP Portugal celebrated its eightieth birthday at the event. Portugal’s national airline was founded on March 14, 1945, by Humberto Delgado, although it did not fly for 18 months, a single route between Lisbon and Madrid, using a DC-3 Dakota aircraft. This summer a fleet of 99 aircraft will fly 1,250 flights per week to 84 cities, 10 in North America, 14 in South America, 12 in Africa, 6 in Portugal and 42 in the rest of Europe.
- The change of name and language from Bolsa Turismo Lisboa to Beter Tourism Lisbon Travel Market (still BTL) took some part, we were told, with driving up numbers of exhibitors from 1,150 to 1,400 and visitors from 77000 to 85,000, but otherwise It went unnoticed. BTL is stil BTL, and there are still people who call IPW Pow Wow, or indeed Fáilte Ireland Bórd Fáilte, all these years later.
- Portuguese speaking destinations were well represented, a reminded that Libson is a hub to get to many unexpected places and the infamous TAP Portugal flight 1327 at 4.15am, first out of Dublin airport every morning, is designed to make those connections Brazil, Angola, Cape Verde, Mozambique and Goa, while Macao had a big presence, unique experiences such as Macanese cooking demonstrations and virtual reality attractions have been used to engage participants and visitors at BTL.
- Ireland matters, but only in Algarve. While more Irish people are going to Portugal, half a million of us a year, and 21.9pc more than pre-pandemic we disperse unevenly. Two in every three, 62,6pc end up on the aircraft to Faro and that southerly Mediterranean facing coast. This makes Ireland the third most important visitor market to the region ahead of Germany. Another 20pc go to Lisbon and 10pc go to Porto.
- Coimbra was also martialling its kitchen power at BTL with the finest food and wine on it stand. The cloisters of Coimbra were well-known in Ireland during the centuries when the English banned Catholics from gaining an education at home: apostles of intellect who studied or taught there included James Arthur, Patrick Comerford, Richard Conway, James Warren Doyle, Ross MacGeoghegan, William Malone, Peter Manby, Seán Ó Coileán, Daniel O’Daly, Luke Wadding and David Wolfe
- The ITAA will be holding their conference in October this year in a bid to boost the regions, located in what is somewhat confusingly known as the Centro region (it is more mid-north then central). Here just over 1pc of Irish tourists go, the majority of them spill-over pilgrims to Fatima. Price of a coffee or a beer here is a fraction of what it is further south, and five star accommodation and championship golf courses are all at the visitors’ disposal at abut 20pc below the going rate in the Algrave, especially during low season, a world to be discovered. The waves of Nazare, the snowy Serra da Estrela, the battlefields from the Peninsular war that feature in Clancy Brothers songs and the walls of Obidos await our noble travel agents.
