Interior tourism entrepreneurs criticize policies that do not distinguish regions

O president of the Iberian Association of Tourism of the Interior (AITI) criticizes the “Lisbon policies” for the sector, stressing that those who promote them “do not even have an idea” of the characteristics of the regions represented by the organization.

In statements to Lusa, Miguel Martins, president of AITI, thus criticised the way tourism in the interior is viewed by central decision-makers.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” he lamented, pointing out “the Lisbon policies” and stressing that most of the time, “who applies them and who promotes them doesn’t even know what is there [inside]”.

“ As long as it is not the other way around and it is not us in the interior to explain to the seafarers, what is needed, we are always in this”, he stressed.

The association, created in 2022, brings together more than 40 Portuguese and Spanish tourism companies in regions of the interior.

The idea went through bringing together entrepreneurs, who “really are the only ones who can work tourism and who do it in a professional way”, he said.

“Our idea is always the same, more than promoting, selling these territories from within,” he stressed.

Miguel Martins said that the work has been “to make known the two sides, the initiatives that are made on one side and the other”, the border.

The interior, in the short term, “will be the solution of the country,” said the associate leader, pointing out the current situation in relation to the housing market.

“ We have the coast, which has people and has no houses, and we have the interior, which has houses and has no people”, he said, calling for policies to be created, for example at tax level, to encourage tourism in the region.

He also warned of the importance of agriculture, regretting that it is “completely abandoned”.

The association organizes, on November 18th and 19th, in Guarda, the World Congress of Interior Tourism that will have more than 45 speakers, “gathering experts, institutional leaders, professionals and sector agents from 18 countries,” he said, in a note.

Miguel Martins believes that tourism and the countryside will be “the future of the country”, but for this he believes that whoever decides, “must look inside in a completely different way”.