I accepted with great pleasure the invitation to open the work of this Seminar on Tourism in Portugal, for various reasons.
Firstly, because tourism is a vital sector of Portuguese economic activity, creating jobs, wealth and development, while accounting for around 6% of GDP.

Then, because it is an important area in Portuguese-Norwegian economic relations, an area of huge growth potential, given the increasing demand for, and interest in Portugal as a tourist destination.

Lastly because today, in addition to being an important economic indicator and a very demanding business area, it is an interesting way of life, affecting people’s attitudes, relationships and cultural mutual knowledge.

Tourism is a vehicle for displaying national riches and diversities, for transmitting culture and for sharing an art of living. Through tourism the image of countries is both given and received, contributing to make up a state of mind and memories, be they the visitor’s or the host’s.

The much-desired Europe of the citizens rightly begins with mutual knowledge of our realities and our states of mind about them. Most often, these are decanted from travels, itineraries and navigations, helping us to build up a personal guidebook that allows us to cultivate our own, private Garden of Eden.

The Paradise that one seeks, Paradise lost or Paradise found, is the unconscious paradigm of every traveller and is naturally the matrix of any work promoting tourism, whether in words or in pictures. You, better than I, know that a good advertising campaign is essential for getting people to talk about a country, a people, a culture, a tourist destination. Often just a simple image, a slogan or just a brief interjection is enough to call the attention of the public, to awaken its curiosity, to seduce it…

Once, for example, I heard a youth suggest “Oh, so, Portugal?!” as a slogan for Portugal, a very interesting idea it seemed to me. Who, addressed in this way, could resist the temptation to know more?

“Oh, so, Portugal?!”

We are immediately drawn on by a host of mental images: a small rectangle measuring some 90,000 square kilometers leaning out into the Atlantic Ocean, looking out towards the distant archipelagoes of the Azores and Madeira; the infinity of landscapes, each one different and contrasting; our 850 km of coastline along which soft beaches alternate with cliffs and capes that stride into the ocean; the mild climate, the sun and purity of the colours; the richness of our cultural heritage, a learned blend of traditions, influences and styles; the vigour of the traditional arts, especially the hand-painted tiles and the fado; our way of being, bringing together a genuine feeling of hospitality and discretion, a certain tendency toward melancholy and a capacity for creative organisation and fast response; the beauty of our poetry and our literature; the pleasures of the table; the variety of our cuisine with its clams Bulhão Pato or Gomes de Sá codfish, the papos de anjo and other conventual sweets; the profusion of table wines in keeping with their grape varieties, the soil and the exposure of the vineyards to the sun; the fortified wines and liqueurs, Port and Madeira in particular.

“Oh, so, Portugal!”, naturally.

Lord Byron, who in the distant eighteen hundreds travelled in and was enchanted by Portugal, especially by Sintra in the outskirts of Lisbon, at a time when there were neither tourism operators nor advertising campaigns, referred to the town in the following terms: “Sintra, glorious Eden”. Were Lord Byron alive today he would surely have travelled throughout the whole country. And his conclusion would probably have been: “Portugal, glorious Eden”.

Portugal as an illustration of Paradise could naturally make us smile. But, in talking of tourist destinations, of places of leisure, of holiday spots, the fact is that there are a great many reasons to choose Portugal out of all the countless places full of attributes and qualities to be found on the surface of the Earth. Let us consider some of these reasons:

- the singularity of Portuguese geography, the most southern country of Europe with a long Atlantic coastline, with its magnificent nature, beaches and countless protected areas. In just a short distance, Portugal offers a huge variety of landscapes, from the sea to the plains, from the mountains to the dunes and lagoons, without forgetting the islands, with the corresponding selection of leisure options;

- the climate and the luminous sun, the mild temperatures and the intense light. With its gentle winters and agreeable summers, Portugal, believe it or not, has “300 days of sunshine a year” to offer.

- the diversity and quality of its tourism facilities, as far as services, hotels and modern infrastructures are concerned, in addition to the many leisure activity available, such as water sports and golf, fishing, shooting, riding or rural tourism and the wine routes, to mention but a few.

- the rich cuisine that varies from region to region, bringing the genuine flavours of the land, fresh produce and the ancient knowledge of the cooking of the convents together with a varied list of table wines of very high quality;

- the variety of cultural events, based on the wealth of our cultural heritage, allied to a certain lively dynamism, especially the cosmopolitan atmosphere in the urban centres with its vast array of entertainment options, ranging from the arts to sports, not forgetting music festivals, festive celebrations of popular saints and major events such as Expo ’98 and Euro 2004; and