"New Dubai flight to Porto opens up a whole new market from Middle East"

Gulf News interviewed Porto City Councillor for Economy, Tourism and Trade, Ricardo Valente, during a media trip organised by Emirates to Porto, early this month of July, on the occasion of the establishment of the Dubai-Porto route.

Ricardo Valente, city councillor for economy, tourism and commerce, said that "the direct flight will bring more tourists to the city. As of now, tourism makes up for 20 per cent of our GDP. In terms of bed nights, our official numbers show that close to three million tourists visit Porto every year. But we feel that the true number is close to five million."

Councillor Valente added that direct flights "do make a big difference as previous experience has shown" because "if you have confidence in a destination, the first thing is you will have direct flights. We have seen that in the US. Our US-origin tourists increased by 35 per cent when we opened a direct flight to New York. The same thing happened when we had a direct flight with Toronto in Canada. If we add a direct flight, the destination speaks for itself. Porto has a big recognition as a tourism destination."

Ricardo Valente enhanced that the Middle East was "a whole new market for Porto as tourists to the mainly came from Europe in the past" as "the new exposure was part of an expansion strategy that has seen tourists from other parts of the world also coming in".

"Traditionally, we were a city break weekend destination. But now we are working on a more diversified, complex product that puts together Porto and the northern region. This means tourists are staying longer in the region. Earlier, only Europeans would come here. Now we are catering to extra-continental tourists who are coming from Brazil, US, Korea China, Japan, Australia and other places", Valente concluded.

Porto may very well be Portugal's second largest city, but it offers a "unique experience".

Thierry Aucoc, Emirates' Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations, Europe and Russian Federation, told Gulf News, "Our Lisbon route, which started in 2012, has been performing very well and we believe that adding Porto will only strengthen our Portuguese offering. The service will further open our global network to the millions of travellers who use Porto Airport every year, to points not only in the GCC but also across Africa, East Asia, South Asia and Australia. The flight will also provide travellers from across our network with a direct flight option to the city and northern Portugal via Dubai."

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