Speaking at the presentation of the joint cross-border tourism promotion strategy, which brings together the Centre and Alentejo regions and Spanish Extremadura, presented at the Lisbon Tourism Exchange (BTL), Anabela Freitas defended the joint work of these territories.

“We have to work together to position ourselves as the largest tourism platform in the world,” she said.

At the same session, Jesús Vinuales, director of Extremadura Tourism, praised the partnership “the result of good relations” between the three regions, arguing that Portugal is “the differentiating factor” for tourism in that Spanish region, as it allows a visitor to get to know two countries.

José Santos, president of Turismo do Alentejo, said that the cross-border partnership was an “opportunity to turn a territorial product into a commercial product.”

“We need to turn this potential into an effective sales force,” said José Santos, adding that co-operation between the three entities “is an opportunity” to make the territory more competitive “at times of the year when there is less demand”.

According to information provided to the Lusa agency by Turismo Centro de Portugal (TCP), the joint initiatives planned for this year under the partnership include a series of promotional actions, which will take place in June, in Madrid and Lisbon, with the media and will have a promotional information aspect for the general public.

Regarding the tourism products that can be promoted together, the regional tourism organisation pointed to natural spaces, such as national parks, biosphere reserves, geoparks, nature reserves, reservoirs and lakes, but also culture and traditions, UNESCO World Heritage sites, castles scattered throughout the territory, historic or schist villages, gastronomy and wines.