Turismo de Portugal to tap Bollywood as part of destination promotion strategy
Mumbai:
As part of their mandate to promote Portugal as an up-market leisure destination, a high ranking Portuguese tourism delegation visited India led by H. E. Cecilia Meireles, Secretary of State for Tourism. Secretary Meireles was accompanied by H. E. Jorge Roza de Oliveira Ambassador of Portugal to India; Mr. Frederico Costa, President of Turismo de Portugal, senior Government officials and the heads of some of Portugal’s finest hoteliers and local tour operators.
Given the importance and potential of the Indian market owing to its vibrant economic status and growing number of travelers, Turismo de Portugal (the state tourism promotion authority) conducted their historic maiden B2B networking workshop titled ‘Portugal Experience Workshop 2012’ recently in New Delhi and Mumbai.
The objective of this marketing initiative was to build cordial relationships between the two countries whilst providing an impetus to inbound tourism into Portugal. The workshops provided a platform for the Portuguese delegation to interact and establish commercial relationships with Indian travel agents, tour operators, wedding planners, corporate travel agencies and India’s burgeoning ‘Bollywood’ film industry professionals.
Commenting on the maiden visit to India, H. E. (Ms.) Cecilia Meireles, Secretary of State for Tourism of Portugal said, “We have always felt close to India, especially on account of our historic connection with the State of Goa. Our maiden marketing initiative will hopefully position Portugal as leisure, historic & cultural destination amongst the Indian travelers.
Films are a wonderful medium for showcasing a destination and all that it has to offer a first time visitor. Bollywood which is hugely popular not only in India is also loved by millions across the world. Thus the Indian film industry is a key target market for us as it provides an ideal and effective platform to promote Portugal to Indians thereby increasing tourist footfalls into Portugal.”
The delegation met with the Indian film fraternity comprising of prominent line producers and location coordinators associated with big production houses such as Disney UTV, Pop Corn Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. (Sunil Shetty’s production company), BSK
Network and Entertainment Pvt. Ltd., (Boney and Sridevi Kapoor’s film production company) amongst others. During the B2B workshops in India, the delegation interacted with an impressive 500 to 600 pre-selected Indian trade professionals that comprise major travel & tour operators, wedding planners, golf & cruise promotional organizations in addition to MICE operators.
H. E. Mr. Jorge Roza de Oliveira, Ambassador of Portugal to India said, “India is a very lucrative market and we are aware of the potential ‘Bollywood’ holds in terms of driving visitors to a particular destination. In addition, we are confident that the historic relationships existing between our two countries will be given an added impetus for growth.”
Mr. Frederico Costa, President of Turismo de Portugal commented: “We are happy with the response that our first tourism oriented marketing visit to India has met with.Portugal is a vibrant destination that attracts travelers from across the globe on account of our strategic position and climatic conditions that provide the best of Europe with the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. We hope these factors prove lucrative to Indian film producers planning on shooting their next Bollywood film internationally.”
The Portuguese private sector delegation that accompanied the government officials of Turismo de Portugal comprised of hotels, destination management companies & tour operators. Participants include Altis Hotels, Dom Pedro Hotels, 4 Seasons Hotel Ritz Lisbon, Martinhal Beach Resort & Hotel, Hotel Lutecia, Pestana Group, SANA Hotels, Penha Longa Hotel Spa & Golf Resort, Vila Gale Hotels and Thema Hotels & Resorts. Travel companies such as AIM Group, Argon Travel, GeoStar, Oasistravel.net, Osiris Travel, Quasar, VEGA & destination management companies such as In ToursPortugal– DMC, Limits Incoming & Incentives – DMC, Lusanova DMC, Mr. TravelPortugal– Luxury DMC and Vista DMC & Emirates Airlines.
About Turismo de Portugal:
Turismo de Portugal, I.P. is an organization that aims to foster development of Portuguese tourism. Integrated within the Ministry of the Economy, Innovation and Development, Turismo de Portugal is the national tourism authority responsible for promotion, enhancement and sustainability of tourism activities, aggregating within a single entity all the institutional competencies related to stimulation of tourism activities, from the supply sector to demand. Using its privilege relationship with other public bodies and economic agents in Portugaland abroad, Turismo de Portugal is dedicated to fulfilling its objective of strengthening tourism as one of the core growth engines of the Portuguese economy.
Image 1 – (From left to right): Operations Manager of Turismo de Portugal – Mr. Miguel Moraes, Managing Director of Charson Advisory – Ms. Sonalee Vaz, His Excellency Ambassador of Portugal to India– Mr. Jorge Roza de Oliveira and Line producer – Mr. Raj Shah
Image 2 – (Left) Indian Hindi film, theatre and TV actress – Ms. Poonam Dhillon, (Centre) Her Excellency Secretary of State for Tourism of Portugal – Ms. Cecília Meireles and (Right) His Excellency Ambassador of Portugal to India– Mr. Jorge Roza de Oliveira
Image 3 – (From left to right): His Excellency Ambassador ofPortugaltoIndia– Mr. Jorge Roza de Oliveira, Her Excellency Secretary of State for Tourism of Portugal – Ms. Cecília Meireles, Online producer – Mr. Jeetendra Chacha and Operations Manager of Turismo de Portugal – Mr. Miguel Moraes
