EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW | FREDERICO COSTA


The idea of the word simplicity is very much in line with what Portugal has to offer


Photo: José Manuel


in living memory would seem a thankless task, but Frederico Costa, executive director of Turismo de Portugal, otherwise known as the Portuguese Tourist Board, was a picture of placidity when Portugal Life & T


S ravel


magazine caught up with him in his Lisbon office recently.


And there’s method to his relaxed demeanour because, as anyone travelling around the country today will tell you, Portugal is as dynamic and enchanting as it has ever been; the long, sandy beaches are still there, the golf courses look beter than ever, Portuguese chefs are gaining more and more recognition for their creativity and the country’s accommodation portolio remains on a par with Europe’s best.


In short, therefore, Costa and his team still have a magnificent destination to sell and, with the main generating markets such as Germany, France, Scandinavia and the UK starting to sprout the all-important green shoots of recovery, there’s plenty of reason for him to feel calm and composed.


7 | Summer 2011 | www.portugal-life.net


teering a tourism destination through one of the worst economic depressions


“Portugal is a fantastic place to visit. Within a relatively short drive visitors can experience many different things, from the great plains of the Alentejo and the many beach resorts and golf courses of the Algarve to the cosmopolitan capital of Lisbon and the enchanting Douro Valley. It’s a compact country with a very broad appeal,” he says.


Costa has been promoting and selling his country for over two decades, and having spent much of that time overseas, he knows a thing or two about Portugal’s atributes as a tourism destination and, just as importantly, how the country is perceived abroad. “Portugal has everything for the 21st-century traveller and people are made to feel truly welcome here. It is widely recognized as a good holiday destination.”


Plenty of progress One aspect he is particularly keen to stress is the progress Portugal has made in improving and modernising its basic tourism infrastructure over the past ten to fiſteen years.


Large-scale events such as Expo ’98 and the Euro 2004 football championships applied stimulus to the country’s rapid development,


but a lot has been achieved on a local level in towns and villages right across the country.


A case in point is Quarteira in the Algarve, whose quality as a beach destination has oſten been compared, to its detriment, with Vilamoura next door. However, these two neighbouring towns might have been described as chalk and cheese in the past, but this is no longer the case according to Frederico Costa.


“Ten years ago, it could have been said that Quarteira lacked a certain appeal, but nowadays it’s a much beter product and compares favourably with its counterparts in southern Spain. Te promenade has been rebuilt and there are plenty of good restaurants around. It’s not a place for the luxury traveller, but it’s an excellent three-star, mid-budget destination and is a very good example of the improvements Portugal has made since the 1980s.”


It’s a similar story in other parts of Portugal, with much of the country’s infrastructure having been renewed or upgraded in recent years. Portugal’s product portolio has likewise been improved and expanded with


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