Tourism isn’t the problem; it’s the lack of other sectors to complement it, says NERA boss
The president of the Algarve’s NERA business association has highlighted the importance of diversifying the region’s economy so that it does not depend solely on tourism.
“The Algarve does not have too much tourism, what it needs is more sectors and that goes for the region and the entire country,” Vítor Neto said at a conference held in Porto and organised by the Portuguese business confederation CIP, cited by online newspaper ECO.
While tourism stands out as the “most important sector of the Algarve economy,” Neto lamented that it is a “very underestimated sector”, stressing that it represented 18% of Portugal’s GDP last year – in other words, €38 billion in revenue on a national level.
Well-aware of its importance to the region, the NERA boss also recognised that the “weight of tourism has led to an imbalance in the structure of the region’s economy,” naming it a “fragility” and a “challenge that has to be overcome”. The key to doing so is not “having less tourism” but instead “diversifying the economic structure of the region,” he said, suggesting investments in traditional sectors like agriculture or in technology.
His statements came during the “Pacto Social. Mais economia para todos” (Social Pact. More economy for all) congress, which started yesterday and continues today at Edifício da Alfândega in Porto.
michael.bruxo@portugalresident.com
