Following record results for tourism this year, Portugal is firmly on the international radar.
Travel magazine Condé Nast Traveler is predicting great things for 2017 while business publication Forbes lists Portugal on its “best places to do business” list, ahead of the United States of America.
As Dinheiro Vivo explains, Forbes’ criteria is based on a country’s economic policies, GDP and taxation levels.
With the U.S. placed 23rd in a list headed by Sweden and New Zealand (with UK in the first five), Portugal this year comes 19th just as hoteliers are predicting even more growth in international tourism for the year ahead (click here).
Singing Portugal’s praises, and talking about its “groundbreaking architecture on every corner” and wealth of cultural initiatives, Condé Nast Traveler also lists Azores on its list of best places to travel in 2017, suggesting the far-flung archipelago may “supplant Iceland (the country) as the place everyone is visiting”.
In the meantime the country is approaching another peak in popularity as tourists from around the globe choose Portugal to see in the New Year.
In the Algarve, hotels are already fully-booked, with New Year’s Eve banquets being avidly reserved at prices reaching up to €180 per head (Hotel Alvor Praia), while nationally spending this festive season shows that citizens have “forgotten the crisis”.
National tabloid Correio da Manhã reports that the country has been spending €210 million per day through this Christmas period – with a total of €5.6 billion spend between November 28 and December 25.
The numbers spell a 7.3% increase on spending last year, while in isolated areas like Porto shopkeepers are talking about increases more in the region of 20%.
Referring to the bleak years of austerity when finance minister Vítor Gaspar was at the helm, CM says spending over Christmas has leapt €1.27 billion, with records being broken across the scale. The busiest moment came at 11.52 on Christmas Eve, reports the paper, when 267 multibanco ‘movements’ were being registered per second.
