
Success story
Development plan for rural tourism in Portugal
Capabilitiess: Tourism development, Business model
Client: Tourism Institute of Portugal (ITP)
Location: Portugal
The project consisted of a study aiming to detect new demand trends in the international tourism market. It assessed Portugal's competitive capacity in several prioritary niches in order to select a series of key products and elaborate development strategies and business models for them.
Rural tourism in Portugal was at an early stage at the time. The country did not know which measures could be taken to stimulate its growth, especially concerning the international market. There were no synergies between the different players of the sector. Likewise, there was a limited capacity of commercialisation of rural tourism.
THR sketched an internationalisation plan for rural tourism in Portugal, taking into account which products should be promoted, in which markets and with which tools.
Furthermore, the country's competitiveness gaps were found out and a management plan was devised, involving all public and private tourist players in the development of rural tourism.

Source: THR
THR's work consolidated the basis for the development of rural tourism in Portugal. The results were presented to the sector's representatives and the degree of satisfaction was considerably high.
With this study, the country already knows how, where, for whom and when to implement the strategies and actions for the internationalisation of Portuguese rural tourism.

Source: THR