The team helps companies to participate in trade fairs, events, workshops and other events, find distribution channels and get to know the market and the tourists. It promotes Portugal as a tourist destination and in dealings with European institutions, working to safeguard Portuguese interests in tourism.
It liaises between the markets and their main players and the Portuguese trade, through workshops, educational and press visits to Portugal and regular visits to the market. In addition to the national tourism fair of the Netherlands, Vakantiebeurs, there is a significant number of regional fairs which are of some interest. However, efforts have been concentrated on the fairs Fiets en Wandelbeurs (Ghent and Utrecht), KLM Open (Netherlands) and 50+ (Netherlands) to promote Portugal as an active tourism, golf and 50+ (long stays) destination.
The delegation has a calendar of fairs and school holidays, as well as lists of incentive agencies and lists of operators with programmes to Portugal. The lists of operators are divided by region, product and operator name.
// Dutch market
With 17.5 million inhabitants, the Netherlands is one of the top 10 source markets for tourists to Portugal. Most Dutch tourists come from Randstad, a region that includes Amsterdam, Utrecht, The Hague and Rotterdam. Air connections between the two countries are provided by several companies, including TAP Air Portugal, KLM, Transavia, Ryanair, Vueling and Tui Fly, with flights from Amsterdam, Rotterdam-The Hague and Eindhoven to Lisbon, Porto, Faro, Funchal and Ponta Delgada (IATA summer only).
// Tourist profile
For the Dutch, holidays are an essential priority. Two-thirds of Dutch people would like to take holidays more often. For seven out of ten, holidays would be the top spending priority if they had more money. These figures come from a consumer survey conducted by Trends & Tourism for an update of the Future Vision of the Dutch Holiday Market for 2030.
Trends up to 2030 show an increase in short holidays, a growing interest in less traditional destinations and strong demand for nature-related experiences.
Trips to Europe are largely organised independently. The main tour operators for Portugal include such companies as ANWB Reizen, Corendon, De Jong Intra Vakanties, Sunweb Group and TUI Nederland, among others.
There are various independent sales networks and travel advisors, such as Face2Face Travel, Personal Touch Travel, Travel Counsellors and The Travel Club, The Travel Company, Travel XL Advisors, TUI at home, United Travel and Your Travel, which provide personalised services to Dutch travellers.
The ANVR is an association that represents tourism professionals. It has a total of 2,000 members, including the Associations/Sales Networks through the aforementioned independent agents. In addition to the ANVR, there is also the VvKR – Association for Small/Medium-sized Tourist Operators.
