If you have clients who love to walk the fields where olives and grapes grow – and then dine on incredibly fresh seafood and shop for high-quality cork products — consider the southern Portuguese region of Aletejo.
In September, Air Canada Vacations and the Alentejo Tourism Office introduced travel consultants from Halifax to Edmonton, via Quebec, to this rural region. And Open Jaw Québec was one of the lucky ones.
The trip proved that when professionals work together to create a product that showcases the best of a destination while guaranteeing quality, efficiency and authenticity for travellers, everyone is in for a treat.
Even for first-time visitors to Portugal, there’s incredible potential in this rural region for your agency sales, says one travel advisor, who gave the experience a big thumbs up.
‘The Alentejo is really beautiful! Here, the Portuguese countryside is the main attraction — not so much the big cities,” said one participant, Marie-Josée Bellefroid. “People who like to admire the vegetation, plantations, vineyards and forests are well catered for.”
This region is ideal for food and wine lovers, and travellers who love to learn.
“A big plus here in this region is the opportunity to learn how a lot of things work or are produced,” said Bellefroid. “The Alentejo is a wine and olive oil region and the region that produces cork. Producers share their knowledge of their fields with visitors, which makes for a very rewarding trip.”
Discovering a natural product that commands respect: cork.
Two key words are imprinted in Bellefroid’s memory: ‘nature and culture. These are the two points to sell the Alentejo destination to customers – even first-timers to Portugal.
Knowing that the major must-sees in a destination (e.g. the capital, Porto, Lisbon, etc.) are often the draw, we asked Bellefroid if she thought Alentejo could be suggested to a client wishing to travel to Portugal for the first time.
‘The villages, the little cafés, the people sitting on the pavement watching life go by, all these are things that customers are looking for, and it doesn’t matter whether it’s the first or umpteenth time they’ve travelled to a destination,” she said. “Some clients like to sit and chat with people. That’s how they like to travel. And the Alentejo is full of all that. So for them, even if they’re considering a first trip to Portugal, yes to the Alentejo!”
Yes, it’s rural. “But here in the Alentejo, finding people who speak English has been easy, everywhere!” she noted.
Bellefroid’s Top Picks
· the monument-hotel La Pousada Mosteiro Crato, for a good night’s sleep;
· the village of Monsaraz, for sightseeing.
