Reviving Lisbon's Tourism Industry: Challenges, Economic Aspects, And Future Planning In An Essay.

The Importance of Tourism to Portugal's Economy

Tourism is the core of most of the nation of the European Union (EU) and so is the case for Portugal. Portugal’s economy is heavily dependent on tourism to its wonderful and sensational places, Lisbon to be particular. However, the massive blow posed by the sudden onset of the COVID-19 pandemic (Daly, Dias and Patuleia 2021). The pandemic has dismantled the global tourism industry and of the EU nations to be very specific. Lisbon which is the capital city of Portugal, is suffering from declining state of its tourism industry due to the blow of pandemic ever since the middle of 2020. The Executive Vice President of the European Commission, Valdes Dombrovkis expressed his concerns regarding the state of Portugal’s economy vis-à-vis the condition of Lisbon’s tourism industry (schengenvisainfo.com 2022). Portugal is currently holding the presidency of the commission and because of which the condition of Lisbon’s tourism has been reprioritized and came into the concerns of the policymakers and think tanks of the EU. However, Dombrovkis has also indicated good adumbration regarding the scope of rebounding of the nation’s economy and its tourism sector in the coming future due to the gradual normalcy in the number of cases (Holloway and Humphreys 2020). The paper aims to provide with a clear picture of the tourism industry of Lisbon, its complexities, economic aspects, stakeholders, impact of globalization, and a pragmatic direction for the future planning and management for revamping Lisbon’s tourism industry.  

Lisbon is the capital city of Portugal which is one of the best places to travel in Europe (Zarilli and Brito 2017). The city bears distinct cultural and civilizational attributes and scenic beauty that are unmatched. The metropolitan area of the city is centred one the base of cathedrals and relics of the then Christianity-based architecture and natural beauty has added more colours to the tourism scope of the city (Andrade, 2020). In terms of economic dependence, the contribution of tourism and travel in the GDP of Portugal is near to 20% which is almost one-fifth of the economy of the nation. Gradually, in terms of trends from the past, it is evident that there has been sharp rise of the nation’s tourism industry in the GDP. In 2000, the contribution of the tourism industry to Portugal to its economy was 11.9% which furthered to 20% by 2019. However, the sudden onset of the pandemic has messed things concerning the dependence of the nation and its economy on tourism and travel (statista.com 2022). The approximate value attained out of tourism and travel industry by the Portuguese government is $48.2 billion with a capacity to grow at a rate of 10% per decade. Ever since the last planning made in 2013, Lisbon was gradually flourishing travel and tourism spot of the globe which attracted millions of tourists each year. Contributions of visa and travel papers were relaxed and flexed concerning most of the difficulties that non-Portuguese face while visiting to the capital city (schengenvisainfo.com 2021). As per the present value of the contribution made by the tourism industry of Lisbon, the value stands at $18.7 billion due to the sudden adverse impact laid down by the pandemic. Overall number of companies associated with travel and tourism business inside the jurisdiction of Portugal is 70,000 as per the government’s reports. In addition to that, it is also a notable fact that almost 364,000 people are engaged and directly employed with the tourism sector of Lisbon. As per the last records of 2019, when things were normal and much before the pandemic came in, Lisbon witnessed over 4 million international tourists (isc.hbs.edu 2022). However, the survey is based on the records provided by the airports authorities and hotel receptionists that most of them were overnight travellers and not ones that stayed with the nation for more than one day. Number of internal tourists were 300,000 on the same year that were basically nationals of Portugal that travelled to Lisbon occasionally for leisure and relaxation. Furthermore, the burden of the nationals that most of the time travel form inside out to other nations of the EU is found to be 10.3% (Barata-Salgueiro, Mendes and Guimarães et al. 2017). On an average, Lisbon can be stated as an affordable place to travel which is not very costly and beyond the economic capacity of most of the internal tourists that travel across the year out of passion, relaxation, education, or even addiction to touring across nations. Average daily rate of staying with the city for a day and night combined is € 79.6 which can be considered as less than travelling costs to other capital cities of the EU nations like Paris, Rome, and London, etc. (oecd.org 2022). There are presently 1418 number of hotels in Lisbon that are always ready to received and serve to the international and national tourists with their best-in-class services, facilities, scope for amusement, driving, fun, meetings, and global cuisines on the go. Penha Longa Resort is the best resort of Lisbon city as per the tourists’ remarks and ratings in various social media pages or even in travel and tour blog response sections. As per the latest survey made by the EU, Portugal is ahead of all other EU nations with an index score of 100 which is far ahead of Luxembourg, Germany, and Spain (Marques Pereira 2020). As per the latest decisions made in the parliament of the EU, Dombrovkis stated that travel restrictions are greatly lifted form Lisbon and people from around the world now enjoy the scenic and majestic view of the ancient Cathedral city. Additionally, a plan is also launched in this direction for purposefully serving the greater interests of economic recovery of Lisbon via its attractive tourism and travel industry (Anjo et al. 2021). Furthermore, sum of the grant that is rolled out for this purpose stands at the € 16.6 billion of which already an amount of € 13.9 billion has been sanctioned to the tourism department of Lisbon (schengenvisainfo.com 2022). This economic grant aims to diversify and enhance value addition services in the tourism industry of the nation with prior focus on innovation, economy, and incorporation of smart and flexible approaches to attract tourists. A comprehensive vision is also laid down for revamping the economy of Portugal via huge investments and impetus on the tourism sector to reach the goal of attaining the landmark spot of €27 billion by 2027 (schengenvisainfo.com 2022).

Lisbon: A Cultural and Scenic Destination

Stakeholders of tourism in Lisbon, Portugal are divided both internally and externally. Tourists, investors, and foreign investment agencies or people, and promoters working for the government of Portugal for promoting its tourism industry are the external stakeholders (Mendes 2020). The government, the Tourism Ministry, State and Federal policymakers, residents, national tourists, and internal businessmen related to the industry, interviewers, and each and every employee working with the tourism sector of the nation comes into the category of internal stakeholders. In the case of tourism industry, stakeholders play a crucial role in deciding the overall impact of tourism of the concerned nation, which for the paper is Portugal (Holloway and Humphreys 2020). Roles of all the stakeholders form their levels are crucial and managers and policymakers should take all into consideration while laying down plans for the future strategies for bettering national and international tourism comprehensively. Moreover, media also plays significant role in promoting and reaching out to a greater span of audience altogether both within the nation and also beyond the borders. On a very microscopic level, tourism also entails crucial weightage on each and individual players have gone up many times. Education, transport, communities, NGOs, medium and small enterprises, operators, and even interstate actors such as media of other nations halted in Lisbon play positive roles in managing and elevating role of the tourism sector comprehensively (Jesus and Franco 2016). Hence, it is not just the onus of managing and proliferating different concepts associated with tourism of Lisbon by government agencies and policymakers but extended to the overall and proportionated representation of all the stakeholders and their views and feedbacks regarding tourism in Portugal. In the context of the present dynamics of global business considering all the sector of the global economy be it tourism or industries of the secondary sector, stakeholder analysis is very crucial and vital. All of the stakeholders are perceived with crucial and distinct roles in the sector that percolate to various sphere and area of influence (Henriques and Moreira 2019). Additionally, creation of Working for the best interests of the Lisbon tourism has become priority area for fulfilling greater goals considering approaching differently to tourists and travellers posited in far-off nations. Furthermore, addition inclusion of education in the direction of why Lisbon’s tourism matters can be a game changer for fundamentally addressing the nationals of Portugal right from their early childhood schooling (Ferreira, Ramos and Lahr 2020). Moreover, inclusion of NGOs and assessing their role in either bettering or damaging a nation’s overall image plays a vital role in reaching out to people beyond borders. In the present world of fame and defamation in seconds, images are built and broken rapidly. The case of nations like India, Australia, and Russia can be taken for example where some NGOs like Oxfam and other so-called agencies that work under the camouflage of human rights activism agencies (Daly, Dias and Patuleia 2021). They continuously damage the images of these countries under the name of democracy and the very alibi of abuse of human rights or threats to democracy involves in acts of treason, sedition, secessionism, and destabilizing national order that damaged the image of the three nations. However, most of the EU nations and alleged to be engaged in such acts to defame these nations so that they can be sure that people do not visit or travel to these countries perceiving the fake image portrayed in the NY Times, BBC, Washington Post or even imposters like Oxfam (Azevedo and Alturas 2019). Hence, regulation and management of media and presence of imposter NGOs like Oxfam or PETA can be really dangerous concerning the portrayal of Portugal or Lisbon to the public outside Portugal. Hence, proper attention shall also be given in the direction of management and sound coordination or organized response to the regulation and control of each of the stakeholders associated with the tourism industry of Portugal (Krähmer, K. and Santangelo 2018).   

Impact of COVID-19 on Lisbon's Tourism Industry

Lisbon is one the most fantastic and attractive tourist place of the world which has attracted over 2 billion people of world since the late 1990s. In 2019 alone, 27 million visitors visited the capital city. Popular destination of the city include places like the city’s cathedral, “Pombaline Lower Town, Alfama, Avendia da Liberdade, Bairro Alto”, and its rich postmodern and gothic architectures (Lestegás, Seixas and Lois-González 2019). Crucial and noteworthy architectures of the city are based on the scenic and climatic beauty of the city which is further blessed by nature due to its low emission levels and sustainable tourism practices. Lisbon is very rich in terms of its constructions like the Belem, Manueline architecture of the 16^th century, monument of Christ the King, and buildings of Catholic structure (Liberato, Liberato and Silva 2020). The city is filled with arts and cultural places filled with the history of Christianity, relics of the World War II, symmetrical structures like Pombaline cage that is based on a mere wooden lattic and timber roofs for reducing contagions form fire. Though it is a fact that Lisbon merely possess only two “UNESCO World Heritage” sites but the city has its cultural and artistic presence among the people or travellers across the world which is the main reason why tourists are motivated to visit the city (Loureiro and Sarmento 2019). Moreover, sentiments such as the ancient cultural richness of Lisbon back form the middle 16^th century is also a major factor of tourists’ motivation. It was called the “Cultural Capital of Europe” since the Expo-1994. The Church of St Anthony is another reason for attraction of international tourists attached with Christianity and pilgrimage. For attracting the young folks, the city uses its rock culture to reach out to the youth around the world that are always interested to join its annual rock music festivals such as “Super Bock Super Rock and Optimus Alive !” (Pato and Kastenholz 2017). In addition to that, each year, a dedicated festival for the Gay and Lesbian people are arranged over here such as the “Lisbon Gay & Lesbian Film Festivals, International Organ Festivals, and Arte Lisboa-Art Fair” (Moreira 2018). Lisbon offers a very beautiful and comprehensive view of its scenic beauty, long beaches, and paradise for the voracious travellers and food-lovers across the world. Moreover, its geographic presence accounts for its pleasing weather and perfect climatic conditions such as mild winter and sunny summers. Though the city is a hub of global foods and drinks, vegetables, and tribal eateries, costs of these items are very much affordable and genuine. Surrounded by seven hills and the majestic beauty of the River Tejo, the view of the capital city of Portugal is one of the best in the entire Europe which captivates visitors around the world (Guedes and Jiménez 2015). Moreover, old neighbourhoods and beautiful parks, beaches, zoos, architectures, and the overall vibration of the city is unique and one of its kind. To sum up, distinct cultural and civilizational attributes and scenic beauty of Lisbon, base of cathedrals and relics of the then Christianity-based architecture and natural beauty aided by a enjoyable climatic condition with very affordable and easy visa norms are the major factors that motivate tourists across the world to visit the city (Jesus and Franco 2016).

Efforts to Revamp Lisbon's Tourism Industry

Globalization refers to the increased interconnection of countries in terms of social, political, cultural, economic, and environmental aspects. The term was more pronounced during the late 1980s with the increased deregulation and ease of exporting both economy and culture form the West to the Orient and the globe at large (Alola et al. 2021). The major impact of globalization is the enhanced mark of interaction, interdependence, and actions based on increasing ease of dumping both economic and cultural footprints of a nation concerned into other nations. Thus, since the late 1990s, globalization was pondered in the direction of tourism and global hospitality industry. Since tourism industry of a nation which for the paper is the case of Lisbon’s tourism, depends largely on factors such as economic, social, and cultural facets. However, globalization is found to be markedly associated with these three factors and thus, its impact tourism industry as well both negatively and positively (Zarrilli and Brito 2017). When due to cross-border economic activities boom, the neighbouring nations that is the nations concerned with cross-border trade and economic activities tend to flourish in terms of stability and cooperation due to certain factors associated with business. In case of Lisbon’s tourism industry, increased mark of cross-border trade among the rest of the EU nations and cultural exchange have jointly contributed to the enhanced image of Portugal at large which indeed is one of the greatest benediction of globalization to the nation’s tourism and hospitality industry (Brelik 2018). In addition to that, increased strength and networks of supply-chains and interconnected of various economic factors such as the common currency of the EU, Euro, and to some extent, the pan-European cultural diplomacy aided by globalization have also contributed significantly to Portugal’s tourism. Since, tourism in greater sense refers to the movement of people, goods, luxury items, cultures, and other forms of co-movements across borders, globalization can be directly attributed to these factors concerning its role in bolstering these factors vis-à-vis Lisbon’s tourism (Song, Li and Cao 2018). Moreover, increased associated among various countries due to globalization and integration of global value and supply-chains are largely found to be formatively contributing to the growth of the European nations and so is for their tourism industries. However, the growth is the found to be very significant for the case of Lisbon’s tourism industry due to its already existing cultural, legacy-based, and architectural significance. Hence, it can be inferred that on a formative side, the tourism industry of Portugal and Lisbon is greatly benefited because of globalization and neo-liberalization of global economies and the EU nations at large (Kvaratskhelia and Damenia 2019).

However, if the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is concerned, it can be found that there has been drastic fall in the economic trends and tourists’ confidence in the tourism of Lisbon and Portugal at large (Bergh and Kärnä 2021). For this, globalization can be blamed because when a virus that emanated from Hubei province of China, travelled across the globe, and dismantled and ravaged the global economy, political order, and the global tourism industry at large (Stezhko et al. 2020). Since due to the blessings of globalization, people of one nation can easily travel across different nations and so is pathogens attached with their bodies, the pandemic destroyed European tourism at large and Portugal was not exempted as well. Though after massive international cooperation form global leaders like India, the US, Australia, and Brazil, Europe gradually revived and as of April, 2022, the indicators of daily footprints of foreigners or travellers in Portugal, economic resumption, and revival of its tourism industry collectively indicates another positive mark of globalization’s impact on the tourism of Lisbon (Alola et al. 2021).

Stakeholders of Lisbon's Tourism Industry

Conclusion

The paper provided a clear picture of the tourism industry of Lisbon, its complexities, economic aspects, stakeholders, impact of globalization, and a pragmatic direction for the future planning and management for revamping Lisbon’s tourism industry. Lisbon is one the most fantastic and attractive tourist place of the world which has attracted over 2 billion people of world since the late 1990s. In 2019 alone, 27 million visitors visited the capital city. Popular destination of the city include places like the city’s cathedral, “Pombaline Lower Town, Alfama, Avendia da Liberdade, Bairro Alto”, and its rich postmodern and gothic architectures (Lestegás, Seixas and Lois-González 2019). Crucial and noteworthy architectures of the city are based on the scenic and climatic beauty of the city which is further blessed by nature due to its low emission levels and sustainable tourism practices. It was found that there are individual roles to play form each levels of the internal stakeholders associated with the tourism industry of Lisbon such as the policymakers, the Portuguese people, the government, and workers of the tourism industry of Portugal. Additionally, it was found that increased strength and networks of supply-chains and interconnected of various economic factors such as the common currency of the EU, Euro, and to some extent, the pan-European cultural diplomacy aided by globalization have also contributed significantly to Portugal’s tourism. However, globalization adversely impacted the tourism industry of Lisbon concerning the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourism. Hence, distinct cultural and civilizational attributes and scenic beauty of Lisbon, base of cathedrals and relics of the then Christianity-based architecture and natural beauty aided by an enjoyable climatic condition with very affordable and easy visa norms are the major factors that motivate tourists across the world to visit the city. Furthermore, pragmatic and comprehensive use of the EU’s grant for reviving Lisbon’s tourism, collective formative inputs by the stakeholders, and cooperation are way ahead for revamping the tourism industry of Lisbon.

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