THE FUTURE OF TOURISM

In the past years, Portugal has strengthened its position as the world's best destination when it comes to Tourism. The tourism sector represented more than 8% of the GPD in 2019, placing Portugal in the top 5 European countries where tourism contributes more to the GPD. With the immense growth of the sector in recent years, tourism operators have increased, there is more demand, more supply, more investment, and more tourists. Even though the Tourism sector has grown quite rapidly, its growth is not equally felt in the rural areas of Portugal, where rural Tourism and nature experiences are just now taking a step towards new developing opportunities.

The digital transformation of Tourism is crucial in a phase all stakeholders have been highly affected. The pandemic situation left this sector in a struggling position, contributing to the end of some small and medium businesses. Therefore, this is the right time to make the right adjustments and decisions towards a new Tourism cycle to start soon.

The result of this effort is the entrepreneurial community we can now find in Portugal, united to face the adversities and conquer new markets and business models. With the increase of tourism startups comes the necessity to create a match between the needs of the market and the startups’ products and services.

More and more initiatives have been organized in recent years with a national effort to bring new and innovative approaches to the traditional Tourism we used to know. From identifying challenges and creating startups to helping the startups to grow, many contributions have been made in order to keep the sector growing disruptively but sustainably.

Hence, this necessity urges us to create platforms and build bridges that can identify the needs of the market, before and after the pandemic, and make sure the entrepreneurial ecosystem is aligned with the real pains of their customers.