Portugal’s secretary of state of tourism, Ana Mendes Godinho, underscored that the country is “growing faster in terms of revenues than in tourist numbers”.

“This is what everyone wants, greater value all the time and more diversified markets”, she said, recalling the “significant growth” in the American, Canadian and Brazilian markets, thus reducing the dependence on other more traditional sources.

In the year to July, tourist revenues were 13% up, making Portugal one of the biggest growing countries in Europe “in tourist revenues, not so much in terms of visitors”, Ana Mendes Godinho said.

Meanwhile, the summit’s chairman, Francisco Calheiros, spoke about the problems the country is facing because of Lisbon airport, “with the start-up of Montijo (a secondary structure) that is late and the improvements at the main Lisbon airport”.

“It makes no sense to have done everything correctly and now we are faced with not getting more tourists because they have nowhere to land”, he complained.