Portugal has just been voted the world’s leading tourist destination for the second year in a row, and thanks to some recent legislation, those with off-the-beaten-track resorts could soon see a major new source of investment.
In January of this year, the Portuguese parliament voted through an expansion to the so-called “golden visa scheme”. The program grants residency to individuals outside of the European Union or European Economic Area who are able to invest in select areas. Up until now, this has included investments of more than €500,000 in property, €250,000 in arts, culture and heritage, the creation of 10 or more jobs, as well as a number of other options. The recent vote ushered in what many are referring to as the “green visa”, which gives residency in exchange for an investment of €500,000 in “environmental projects”. These projects can include organic agriculture, renewable energy, any project that cuts carbon emissions and, most importantly, ecotourism.
Ecotourism has been around since the 1980s and is considered the first iteration of what many people now refer to as responsible travel, ethical travel or conscious travel. It is essentially a hit back against mass tourism and focuses on imbuing travel with more environmentally friendly practices, protecting the flora and fauna of a destination and supporting local heritage and communities. The International Ecotourism Society (TIES), which is the oldest and largest ecotourism society in the world, with more than 15,000 members, describes it as “Responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people.”
With a focus on low-impact, small scale and getting back to nature, it’s easy to see how the growth of ecotourism has gone hand-in-hand with the growth of glamping — bell tents seem far more at home in the pristine foothills of a mountain range than a multi-storey hotel does. And, ecotourism certainly has grown. In fact, research into sustainable tourism in the United States found that 60% of leisure travelers — 105.3 million people — took what they called a “sustainable” trip between 2015 and 2017. Additionally, while on these trips visitors tended to stay longer — seven rather than four days — and spend an average of $600 more. Moreover, those taking “wellness vacations”, which are often tied to ecotourism and glamping, tend to spend 61% more on international trips and 164% more on domestic trips than the average traveller, according to the Global Wellness Institute.
Ecotourism has not seen as much growth in Portugal, and the EU as a whole, as it has in other parts of the world such as Asia, the South Pacific, Africa and South America. This is, in part, because the tourism sector as a whole is far more established in Europe meaning less uptake of new trends. “Europe has a very mature tourism infrastructure and change therefore comes more slowly,” according to Jon Bruno, Executive Director of TIES. That isn’t to say that it isn’t happening, however, with many tourism officials in EU countries saying that they “were already doing ecotourism before it was called ecotourism”, according to Bruno.
Portugal’s tourism market is certainly a mature one, and has seen massive growth in recent years alongside the more general economic improvement of the country. This growth has been driven in part by golden visas, with the Residence Permit for Investment scheme (ARI) bringing in about €670 million a year to Portugal — totalling more than €4 billion since 2012, according to a Transparency International report.
Portugal isn’t alone in having a golden visa scheme, with many EU countries running residence — or even citizenship — investment programs since the economic crisis. Combined, they have generated an estimated €25 billion in foreign direct investment into the EU over the past 10 years, according to Transparency International. However, Portugal does seem to be in a unique position by having such a strong tourism sector, high foreign investment and a government focused on “green” initiatives — Lisbon is the 2020 European Green Capital, for example. Combined, this could make Portugal a major driving force for ecotourism in Europe. So far, much of the investment from the Portuguese golden visa scheme has been in property, but, if even a fraction of the amount that has gone into golden visas goes into green visas, ecotourism in Portugal could have a major financial boost.
While green visas hold much potential for the Portuguese ecotourism market, they are not without their flaws. Firstly, citizenship- and residence-by-investment programs as a whole have been heavily criticised, with Ana Gomes, a Portuguese member of the European Parliament describing Portugal’s ARI as “a corrupt scheme to support the corrupt”. Green visas raise similar concerns as well as having the added risk of being self-defeating by encouraging companies to “greenwash” in order to secure investment. This is something that has already been seen in the ecotourism boom and can seriously impact sustainable tourism as a whole. As Bruno says, “Simply putting the name ‘ecotourism’ on something when it isn’t is bad for ecotourism and very bad for destinations.”
With such high risks, green visas will only prove beneficial if handled in the right way. “I see that [green visas] might be good for ecotourism if, and only if, there is sufficient real oversight. I have heard that only a small portion of the golden visa funds resulted in real job gains for Portuguese people. To be really green, and to be real ecotourism, the funds raised by a green visa would need to be directed to real ecotourism projects overseen by qualified personnel knowledgeable in best practices,” Bruno says.
All said and done, the so-called green visa is as of yet untested. If they gain traction among non-EU and -EEA investors, and “the funds raised by it are used under the auspices of real ecotourism guidelines,” it could mean an ecotourism revolution in Portugal, and who knows, maybe it could make the world a little greener at the same time.
by Eden Flaherty
