Considered by many a staple in the Algarve’s business agenda, the 13th Better Living in Portugal (BLiP) exhibition appeared this year with a makeover, presenting new additions to the classic event, such as the introduction of the ‘BLiP Shopping’ area, the participation of the Algarve, Alentejo and Portimão tourism bodies and the inclusion of an indoor café.
Approximately 4,500 people passed by the Portimão Arena on October 5-6 to see what was on display, a number which CEO of afpop Michael Reeve approved but would have liked to see improved.
“It’s not always about the number of visitors, as more visitors doesn’t necessarily mean more customers for exhibitors, but of course I would like to have seen more people coming through the doors,” Reeve told the Algarve Resident.
He added: “However, most exhibitors that we spoke to at BLiP this year reported that they were happy with the number of people that they had seen at their stands.”
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The CEO of afpop expressed his satisfaction with the return of small local businesses to BLiP, one of the proclaimed objectives of this year’s edition.
“This is something that we want to build on next year. It’s a difficult balance to strike but for us variety is as important as numbers. Visitors expect to see a lot of variety in exhibitors and I feel that we certainly had that this year,” he stated.
There were 82 exhibitors at BLiP this year, which was a 30% increase on last year’s exhibitor numbers.
More Portuguese visitors were seen at the exhibition as well, which Michael Reeve considered “good for the exhibitors and the event”.
The CEO stressed that this year’s event basically served as “Year One” for them as organisers due to the many changes to the exhibition’s format.
“What I can say is that the innovations seemed to work, even if they may need to be tweaked for the future, and the growth in exhibitors by 30% over last year was encouraging and rewarding. I think that this success does create the expectation for next year,” Michael Reeve concluded.
