"If we think about diversity, can anyone compete in what the Centre region represents?", asked the president of Destinature and the Mayor of Fundão, Paulo Fernandes, who spoke on 28 July at the Days of Nature, Health and Wellness, held in Luso, municipality of Mealhada.

For this responsible, the diversity of the region is relevant and it is necessary to continue to transform this diversity into product, namely in tourism products created in collaboration and partnership, as is the case of the Historical Villages or Schist Villages.

Center of Portugal • Schist Villages

Paulo Fernandes underlined that this tourism segment is "growing at a much higher rate", and that it is necessary that the agents take science to the process, bet in collaborative structures, take "some specialisation to the offer", as well as relate even more the health component to nature tourism.

Also present on the same panel, João Portugal, from Turismo de Portugal, noted that what was a trend already before Covid-19 - demand for outdoor activities, with greater contact with nature and in small groups - only intensified with the pandemic context.

"The pandemic accelerated people's desire for this type of product or activity," he said, stressing that the demand for nature tourism agents is also expected to increase.

In the closing session, Isabel Ferreira, Secretary of State for the Development of the Interior, who participated remotely, stressed that the country "offers opportunities for excellence" in this sector, which is diverse throughout the territory.

"The sanitary situation we have experienced since March 2020 has brought negative consequences for this sector, but it has also brought a reorientation in the preferences and typologies of the tourism offer, which results in a greater degree of confidence in land less conducive to large agglomerations," she noted, considering that inland territories present "a pragmatic tourism alternative" in relation to other destinations associated with a greater massification of visitors.

Source: Photo by user Monica Andre from... used under CC BY 2.0