“We want the visitors to feel at home,” – Filipe Silva

Portugal, the south European nation, though not new to the Indian market is keen on attracting more Indian travellers. In an exclusive interview with India Outbound, Filipe Silva, one of the board members of Visit Portugal shares more about the destination, the special attractions and its strategies to target the Indian market.

What is the current pattern of Indian tourists visiting Portugal? 

There are fun groups, FITs and younger travellers that are seeking new experiences. Many are influenced by the Indian film productions shot here in Portugal. Also from the business perspective, corporations and businessmen are travelling to Portugal to establish new businesses in the IT sector as well. So, a good range of diverse profiles of visitors are visiting our country.

What are your plans for the Indian market for 2020? 

We have opened an office here in India and have appointed Claudia Matias as our director for the Indian market that will be based in our Embassy premises and will be covering the entire Indian market. So, this is a very strong commitment with two major objectives. First one is to increase awareness about Portugal as a tourist destination and the second one, of course, is to increase partnerships with different tour operators and travel agencies to increase their knowledge and expertise on Portugal and to create the best conditions for these potential partners to bring more business here from India.

Indians are very fond of destination weddings. Is Portugal targetting the Indian wedding segment as well? 

Yes, Indians can get married in palaces, convents, monasteries, and historical monuments in Portugal. Indian weddings are different from the weddings that we have in Portugal. So, they have special requirements and Portuguese companies have been working in terms of understanding all their requirements and are trying to meet those requirements.  We want every single wedding to be very special when happening in Portugal.

 How are you planning to promote sports tourism in Portugal?

This is an area that we have been developing our expertise in. We are not a top destination and known so well as other destinations, but the work that we have been doing in terms of providing right infrastructure for different types of sports to have their training sessions and organise their sports events here, has been very important not only in football but in other sports such as athletics, canoeing, cycling, and horse riding as well. So we are offering excelling facilities so that these teams look at Portugal as an option for their training camps, training sessions and sports activities. We have been considered as the top golf destination around the globe. We have about 90 golf courses across the country, which are considered as the top golf courses in the world. This, of course, attracts a lot of business for the golf professionals and also for leisure purposes.

How is the MICE segment in Portugal?

We have been increasing in terms of the number of incentives and conventions that we are getting from India. It is not only because of the infrastructure that we have for these kinds of incentives or conventions but also the capacity of our professionals, and companies that manage to deliver excellent solutions for Indian cooperatives and corporations that want to organise their incentives or conventions in Portugal. So, this is a very important mix that will allow to secure excellent conditions for Indian co-operations to organise their conventions and incentives in Portugal.

Why are you focussing on simplicity in your promotional campaigns? 

It has very much to do with the way the Portuguese are. We are simple people. We try to develop an approach that is very much focussed on the warm hospitality in welcoming every single tourist that comes to visit our country. So, we are a nation of simple people addressing and trying to help every single visitor that is coming to our country making them feel as at home as possible.

How vegetarian-friendly is Portugal as a destination? 

It is increasing in terms of different options available. All the companies, hotels and restaurants are becoming more concerned about providing all the necessary requirements for the different travellers, whether vegetarian or vegan or halal or even Jain people who have specific requirements. The main purpose is for the visitors to feel at home and enjoy our local and fantastic gastronomy which has been very much influenced by Chinese, Indian, Brazilian and African culture, from the time when we were travelling around the world five centuries ago. So, now we have a blend of different cultures which are now a part of our tradition and gastronomy. We want our visitors to experiment our gastronomy, but of course, we believe that they should also feel comfortable and therefore, we have Indian restaurants as well. Whenever any Indian traveller feels homesick, they can go to any Indian restaurant. 

How is art tourism in Portugal? 

Art tourism is definitely increasing in terms of different options in Portugal and I would also try to include the dimension of architecture. Lots of people are travelling to Portugal not only to see the museums and different monuments that we have but also for its architecture. Portugal allows aligning great diversity of traditional and historical type of architecture combined with more contemporary side and it’s a wonderful mix. People get surprised with what they see in Portugal.