Turismo de Portugal said the decision to not support the 25th Portugal Open tennis competition this year, as was confirmed on Thursday by the president of the organisation, was made after an analysis of the event showed it was marginal in promoting the country.
"We took the same decision last year, which was not to support it," confirmed João Cotrim de Figueiredo who added that "the remit of Turismo de Portugal is to interpret the interest of an event for tourism and tourism promotion purposes and that it was in this context they had discussions with the event promoter, Mr. João Lagos,” who is not happy.
The decision was communicated to the event manager on February 7th, but on February 5th the Secretary of State for Sport and Youth, Emidio Guerreiro said that the Portugal Open will "soon be recognised as an event of public interest” and expressed his surprise that the tennis tournament did not already have this status which would make it easier to justify funding.
On January 29th the president of the Portuguese Tennis Federation, Vasco Costa, said he will do everything to help João Lagos to ensure that the Portugal Open gets help but added that this support would not be financial.
The organiser says that state recognition and money would enable him to get sponsors for Portugal Open, but now the event which is scheduled for April 26 to May 4 is at risk of not happening, João Lagos is short of €2 million needed to make it happen.
If there were no financial problems the 25th Portugal Open would be the "best ever" due to the interest that it already has received from the "big names of world tennis" according to João Lagos.
