In a disparaging speech, the head of Turismo de Portugal has criticised the large mish-mash of regional bodies that try to promote tourism, and the fact the Portugal still is not a coherent brand.
The number of regional bodies is high, given the size of the country, according to of Louis Matoso, the national tourism boss who admitted that regional slants in national initiatives are useful but the whole system really does need sorting out.
The government is in talks with the tourism sector to define yet another ‘new model’ to promote tourism in and beyond 2014. Its aim now is to create a new tourism promotion agency which will have greater private participation, i.e. less cost to the state, but it is not clear how the reduced number of regional tourism boards will interact and cooperate with council based and sector based local initiatives and activities.
Louis Matoso was speaking at the 39th Congress of Travel Agencies which ended today in the Azores and finished by declaring that "There is no brand Portugal."
"Portugal does not promote itself, what we have been doing merely counting the number of tourists that enter and leave the country," said the tourism boss adding that the Portugal brand goes beyond tourism yet there is no brand consistency and there is no political will to discuss how the country can be projected to the world.
The Government is currently finalising the selection of the new Executive Board of Tourism of Portugal.
