Tourism is increasing and foreigners continue to arrive at Portuguese airports. Many of them are looking for what experts call the ‘new luxury’, and this is the case with the growing number of wealthy citizens from the United States visiting Portugal. According to the National Statistics Institute, in June, 81.7% of passengers disembarking at airports were foreigners, amounting to 2.6 million. After Europe (representing 68.9%), “the Americas was the second most important destination, with 9% of the total number of passengers disembarked”, an increase of 11.7% compared to June last year. An increase that, according to the general secretary of Laurel (Portuguese Association of Brands of Excellence), is good, because the average consumption of an American is twice as high as that of a European. “A top American can freely spend two or three thousand euros a day in Portugal,” says Francisco Carvalheira.

And what are these (relatively) new tourists looking for? Luxury? “Let’s be pragmatic. A customer who is used to buying luxury, if he wants to buy the big brands, will tend to go to his country of origin. They will go to France, Italy or the United Kingdom. They can come here every now and then,” says Francisco Carvalheira. These high-purchasing-power tourists choose to stay in good hotels – “because if there’s money in the United States, there’s real money,” says Laurel’s general secretary – and what they’re really looking for is our history. “They buy know-how, they like to go to a restaurant and see that the food is natural, they pay whatever it takes” and “above all, they know how to understand where they can demand the service”.

Ana Cristina Guilherme, from hotel consultancy ABC Hospitality, makes the same analysis. “Luxury today is very different than it was twenty years ago. And when I say very different, I mean it.” In other words, we are talking about ‘new luxury’, which is linked to unique and exclusive places.

What tourists with more money are looking for is “what is simple and organic and that returns traditions and legacies of the Portuguese ancestral wisdom, of our grandmothers and great-grandmothers.” In other words: “the local traditions until today”, he describes, reinterpreted in a contemporary way. “That’s what luxury is nowadays,” he says.
In the specific case of the American market, the person in charge says that the location and the space where he decides to stay currently matters most. “The American market comes looking to experience the region, to discover the destination, to be able to walk with a shepherd, to walk on the beach and to catch limpets with a fisherman.” “In particular, this market, which has a much smaller history than ours, seeks to understand the roots and origins of things” and wants to know our heritage.

And while five-star hotels are still in high demand, with plenty of rooms and entertainment at all hours of the day, Ana Cristina Guilherme says we have seen an explosion of ‘independent hotel units’ with a load of accommodation between 20 and 50 rooms. These spaces “almost merge with the authenticity of the place where they choose to be born or rehabilitated” and are what guests who want this new luxury are looking for. “It is an immersion in the destination. Luxury is time, it is silence, it is feeling, it is walking barefoot, as designer Philip Starck said,” he also says.

“The more a hotel unit – within its strategy and business model – chooses good local and national suppliers, that is luxury,” he explains, adding that “it is all much more valuable if the owner or investor chooses good national products”.

Sell ​​national know-how

The World Travel & Tourism Council estimates that the tourism sector could contribute 17.4% to national GDP this year. And that there will be an annual increase of 3.4% over the next ten years, with the sector reaching a weight of 20.2% in the economy in 2032. Francisco Carvalheira remembers that “Portugal has something you need to know how to sell”: our History. “We have 800, 900 years of history of knowing how to do things. We can’t be copycats,” he says. “Portugal, with all it has to offer, with its heritage, must be able to find its way among the brands of excellence and luxury.”

The general secretary of the Portuguese Association of Brands of Excellence emphasizes that “we cannot create Chanel, because it has already been created, but we can create other things”. And for an American, ours is very important. It is necessary to know how to offer this heritage, says the person responsible. “Americans come to buy naturalness, friendliness or even a grilled fish. They also come to buy our sun, our joy. All this, plus our originality, is priceless to them.”

And he believes that if we “continue to sell our originality with tremendous quality, we will have everything we need to be very successful.” Because, says Francisco Carvalheira, consistency is needed to sell national brands of excellence or luxury. “It’s one of the keys to the success of luxury, having consistency in everything. Because luxury takes time and whoever says a product is luxury is the person who buys it and is willing to pay an extra premium because they recognize quality, and that takes time.”

Mónica Costa is a journalist for Dinheiro Vivo