Marta Guerreiro highlights commitment of tour agents to disseminating the Azores destination
The Regional Secretary for Energy, Environment and Tourism highlighted the commitment of tour agents to disseminating the Azores destination, playing an active role in the consolidation of a tourist region that has grown at national level year after year.
"We have no doubt that these have been fruitful days of work and exchange of contacts based on the products presented by each agent, with gains for their activities, as also moments to promote the destination's offer as a whole," said Marta Guerreiro. She spoke on the sidelines of the Lisbon Travel Market (BTL), where she established contacts with numerous public and private entities participating in the event.
According to the government official, the improvement of the destination's offer and the mitigation of seasonality are the priorities of the Government that are shared by other agents of the sector, "where the many steps of significant improvement over the last years are quite visible."
In this context, she mentioned, as example, that the seasonality index in traditional hospitality stood at 58% in 2013 and at 49% in 2018, which is a considerable reduction.
Marta Guerreiro stated that in 2001 "this indicator was practically identical to the one currently registered," but stressed that "it was a completely different context."
The Regional Secretary recalled that "the seasonally adjusted rates registered for the 2002-2004 period were slightly lower than the current figures due to the investment in flights from Scandinavia during the winter in the early 2000s, at a time when summer tourism was very weak compared to present-day levels."
"Nowadays, the number of overnight stays is practically four times higher on a well-sustained basis and, consequently, the hospitality profitability levels reflect the satisfaction of any entrepreneur in this industry," added the government official.
According to the Secretary for Tourism, this consolidation "is quite evident in the overall revenue of traditional hospitality, which stood at less than seven million Euros in 2001 and at 95 million Euros in 2018."
"In 2018, we have once again achieved a new record number of guests and overnight stays in the Azores even surpassing the average worldwide growth in tourism, which has been happening since 2015. Additionally, the Region exceeded for the first the 2.5 million-Euro benchmark in the number of overnight stays, representing a growth of 7.5% over the previous year," said the government official.
Marta Guerreiro also stressed that, according to the tourism statistics published today, "the number of overnight stays in January this year registered a very significant growth, similarly to January last year, standing at 17.7%. Once again, these figures demonstrate the Region's ability to achieve positive results in this challenge to grow more during winter."
"Acknowledging the existence of many ways of looking at tourism, we do not accept the statements often made about the sharpening of seasonality in view of the remarkable reduction in recent years and the general satisfaction with the business dynamics of tourism," said the government official.
The Regional Secretary highlighted the "need to continue this process of improving the seasonality index, ensuring, on the one hand, greater air connectivity and, on the other hand, increase the market segment that shows interest in the activities we offer throughout the year."