Secretary of State for Tourism Announces 50-Million-Euro Fund to Film in Portugal

23 November 2017

“We will develop a more attractive tax and incentive system,” Ana Mendes Godinho stated in Macau last Thursday.

The Secretary of State for Tourism took advantage of her trip to Macau for the 43rd National Congress of the Portuguese Association of Travel and Tourism Agencies (APAVT) to announce a 50-million-euro fund to film in Portugal.

In her opening address, the official also said that in the 2018 State Budget (OE 2018) a new mechanism was being put in place to create a 50-million-euro tourism/cinema fund that aims to make Portugal a more competitive location for shooting films. “We will develop a more attractive tax and incentive system so that more films will be shot in Portugal,” Secretary Godinho announced.

As for stimulating innovation, the government official pointed out that there are already about fifty new start-ups focused on the tourism sector this year. “We also have 538 new travel agencies and 3,000 new tourist innovation companies that have opened in the last year,” she stated.

Regarding local tourist accommodations (LA), the Secretary stated that she believes that the figures show that there is room for everyone, hotel revenues have reached a record growth of 18%, indicating that there is enough demand to sustain the market as a whole.

“We had 28,000 local accommodation units registered at the end of 2015, and at the moment we have 54,000. This is due to two things: inspections by the ASAE and increased formalisation of these businesses, and secondly, our collaboration with the sales platforms, including regulations that require the homes for rent provide a mandatory LA registration number when registering on commercial platforms,” the Secretary clarified.

Ms Godinho also revealed that regarding capital gains taxes, the new OE 2018 enshrines a rule that suspends their taxation. “The collection of capital gains taxes will be suspended when there the home under question is returned to the traditional rental market,” said the Secretary of State for Tourism.

Original Story: Jornal Econômico – Fernanda Pedro

Translation: Richard Turner