LISBON, May 23 (Xinhua) -- Portugal's Secretary of State for Tourism Ana Mendes Godinho called on Tuesday for the tourism sector to do more to decentralize the activity, according to Portuguese Lusa News Agency.
Speaking at a conference on tourism sector financing in Coimbra, northern Portugal, Godinho said there were problems relating to seaside tourism and low-density territories and that companies had to "be on the ground and make things happen."
She also pointed out that it was important to decentralize investment in the tourism sector.
The ruling Socialist Party last week took this subject to parliament, calling for the adoption of measures to decentralize and diversify tourism.
This comes after the latest figures by the country's statistics institute showed that the main tourism destinations in Portugal continued to be Algarve in the south, Lisbon, and Madeira Island.
Portugal's tourism revenue rose by 10 percent last year compared with the previous year, reaching 12.6 billion euros (14.2 billion U.S. dollars).
"If today we are doing well, we will be doing even better in 10 years, if companies and public entities maintain their rhythm of investment of the last decade," Godinho said. (1 euro = 1.12 U.S. dollars)
