Tiago Brito, Tourism Director of the Turismo de Portugal: Focus on Safe Restart of Tourism Industry to Revive Confidence

Recently, Tiago Brito, Tourism Director of the Turismo de Portugal, accepted the interview with WTCF. He introduced the measures taken by Portugal to promote the safe restart of tourism and the promotion of tourist destinations, introduced unique culture and tourism resources of Lisbon, WTCF s member city, and expressed confidence that the tourism industry will return to prosperity in the future.

Release time : 2021-01-18 14:47:27

source : WTCF

of the most visited, Sintra is a very romantic place, and also Mafra, which is a bit north of Lisbon. There are also other intangible heritages in Lisbon, like Fado, also one of Lisbon's most famous cultural interests for tourists and Portuguese as well. People can learn about this city through the most Portuguese traditional folk song called "Fado Fado".

For Chinese tourists, the most famous one is the Portuguese egg tarts. Almost every tourist who goes to Lisbon will probably go to Belém to try these world-famous egg tarts. Lisbon also gathers a variety of architectural styles. It's with great diversity although it's not a big city.

In the southern part of Lisbon, there is a place called Setubal which has also very wonderful beaches with interesting coast lines with warmer waters, and it's a favorite place for Portuguese and for tourists. Whether you're visiting in family or with a big group, or if you are choosing Lisbon for business, you won't be bored. And you'll miss here if you leave one day.

WTCF: It is a pity that people can't travel abroad because of the pandemic. Many countries have been actually severely affected by the pandemic, so what are your suggestions on how to overcome the pandemic?

Tiago Brito: We need to take it step by step. We have different inbound markets. So speaking specifically of China, we're responsible for China's mainland, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. Since the end of January, 2020, Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism prevented the selling of tour packages to Europe, including Portugal. Since then, we also understood that the pandemic would be long and travel restrictions would be long.

So we have to shift all our before strategies to adopt a new paradigm, undertake different activities to increase understanding between two countries. We hosted online roadshow with almost 70 Chinese travel agents from all over China, and also promoted an e-learning platform called