Before the pandemic our country received almost 400 thousand Chinese guests, which represented only 600 thousand overnight stays in tourist establishments. Therefore, the main goal of Tourism of Portugal, for the Chinese market, "is to increase the length of stay of tourists in Portugal and encourage travel throughout the country, beyond Lisbon.

Lídia Monteiro, director of Sales and Marketing of Turismo de Portugal, made this statement on Monday in Lisbon, to welcome the delegation of the Province of Zhejiang, as part of an event to promote cultural tourism of that Chinese region in our country, “after such a long period without any face-to-face contacts because of the pandemic.

The official from Turismo de Portugal also said in her brief intervention that “we are pleased to know that China can finally resume international travel for leisure and following the recent announcement of the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Portugal was included in the list of countries that are authorized and can receive Chinese tourists”, out of a total of 60 countries.

Zhejiang, according to Lídia Monteiro, is the Chinese province that brings more tourists to Portugal. In fact the head of the Chinese delegation, the first-level inspector of the Department of Culture and Tourism of that region of China, Liu He, pointed out that 35% of the Chinese who visited our country in 2019 are from Zhejiang Province.

“One of the main contributions to bring the two countries closer is the direct flight between Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang Province, on China’s east coast, and Lisbon that is operated by Beijing Capital Airlines,” said the director of Portugal Tourism, to add that the airline announced very recently that it would already increase air connectivity to two direct weekly flights, thus connecting the two cities in just 13 hours, on Thursdays and Saturdays, without stopovers.

Lídia Monteiro recalled that a large part of the Chinese community living in Portugal is precisely from the Province of Zhejiang, “which helps and contributes greatly to mutual understanding and also to boost business. We hope that today is another opportunity to strengthen these ties and cultural exchange between our two countries that have a history of cooperation and friendship for over 500 years.

To Publituris, the head of Portugal Tourism stressed that “even during the pandemic period whenever there were promotional initiatives within the Chinese territory on tourism, Portugal was present. Our market delegation in Shanghai has always been in contact with operators, of course with the limitations that we know. Right now we are starting our activity in a more persistent way so that we can quickly achieve the numbers we had in 2019 and even exceed them.”

The good news is, he said, ” of the air connection moving to two frequencies per week is very important because it facilitates connectivity and the ease of people moving from one side to the other.

The fact that the permanence of Chinese tourists is still very low, Lídia Monteiro says that “what happens is that Portugal is in the group of countries of collective travel by several European countries. What we work with operators in the market is to increase the number of overnight stays in Portugal, including exclusive programs just for Portugal, and in 2019 we were already quite successful, and now to resume”.

About the motivations of the trips to Portugal, the responsible highlighted that “there is a very great cultural affinity, so the historical and cultural connections are of interest to the Chinese, they are also consumers of international brands shopping, but also the Portuguese brands, a very interesting aspect, besides liking to know our landscapes and our nature”

Source: Publituris