President of Portugal’s tourism confederation admits political situation “isn’t good”
The President of the Tourism Confederation of Portugal (CTP), Francisco Calheiros, said that Portugal’s current political situation was not “positive for the country” on Tuesday and called for stable government and stability.
“The CTP hopes that the political situation will be sorted out as quickly as possible. The new political situation that we’re having to deal with is not positive for the country in general and for companies in particular”, he said in Albufeira in the Algarve.
Addressing the conference ‘Algarve Tourism: Surmounting challenges; Building tomorrow’ which marked the 55th anniversary of the Algarve Tourism Region (RTA), the CTP president said that Portugal was living through “challenging and uncertain times”.
“We’re going through a new period of political instability and right now the key word is ‘uncertainty’”, he said.
The tourism boss added that “this phase of national instability combined with the uncertainties on the international scene” provided a challenging time for all, and in particular for the tourism sector.
For Francisco Calheiros, the country “needs stability in political terms and stable governance so that ongoing projects and investments that are directly and indirectly related to tourism activity are not blocked”. “This is the case with the privatization of TAP, the new airport or the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP),” he pointed out.
At the same time, he said that whoever won the election, the CTP would not roll down its sleeves and would continue to call for the urgent reform of the State, a new airport, the high-speed rail link (TGV), modernising the country’s railway network and a more efficient territorial management.
According to Francisco Calheiros, the lack of labour, and a need to beef up investment in training and pay better wages would also be priorities in the sector, since “these issues needed to be resolved in order to continue to create wealth and jobs”.
“Tourism brings value to the country, generates wealth and creates jobs like no other activity, bringing very significant effects on the economy by stimulating other sectors, ensuring an important source of tax revenues and taking brand Portugal further,” he concluded.
