Plans formed in 2013 by Portugal’s national tourism agency are paying off.
The development of tourism promotion using the internet is reaping positive results and has contributed to the reduction of Turismo de Portugal’s multi-million expenditure by at least 30%.
A lower spend has not meant poor results as key targets are being met in those market sectors that use the internet as a way to plan trips.
In 2013 the international promotion of Portugal primarily was by using clunky and expensive media campaigns in the press.
Last year the tourist board started a €5 million spend across 2013 and 2014 to promote Portugal as a tourism destination to the online community, according to João Cotrim de Figueiredo, President of Turismo de Portugal.
The advertising model centered on Portugal as a whole, not in regional promotions, and was aimed at 13 markets in 11 languages in 400 mini-campaigns using Google’s AdWords and Google Display, Facebook and Youtube - all directing surfers to the VisitPortugal website.
This concentration on online media has allowed Turismo de Portugal to spend less on advertising that in the past has ballooned to over €10 million annually on expensive press campaigns.
The ‘do more with less’ policy has reduced overall expenditure from €34.8 million in 2011 to a budgeted €14.4 for 2014.
The support of high-profile and not so high-profile events has dropped every year since 2011 when €18 million was spent, to €4.3 million forecast for 2014.
On the plus side the number of fans on the VisitPortugal Facebook page has increased and the number of foreigners has risen from 25% in 2012 to 81% currently.
The number of visits to the VisitPortgal portal grew 92.5% to the year ending April 2014 from last April.
Economy Minister, António Pires de Lima believes the new lower-cost promotional plans have been an "option that allows us to do more with less and more efficiently, to go further and have a more personalised, modern and real-time relationship, to have a close relationship and build up trust with tourists."
The minister stated that tourism is "A champion of the national economy," and believes that "Portugal continues to believe in the sector with good reason." To Pires de Lima, it is "the sector that contributes most to the positive balance of payments and is a major national export" at 3.7% of GDP.
