Visit Portugal launches new sustainability challenge to travellers

Visit Portugal has launched an inspiring message to travellers from the UK in the form of an inspiring YouTube video which calls for a focus on responsible and sustainable tourism in 2021. The #CantSkipTomorrow message, delivered by a young child adopting the persona of ‘tomorrow’, is a call for discovering new ways of travelling bound by a collective conscience to protect what has been given to us by nature.

This important message for a better future is developed from the song “Verdes são os campos” (Green are the fields) by Zeca Afonso, created from a poem by Luís Vaz de Camões. It derives from the global guidelines of the World Tourism Organization which indicates that the actions of travelers, once the threat of COVID-19 has eased, will allow the industry to redefine itself in an even stronger and more sustainable way than ever before.

The #CantSkipTomorrow message, a variation on the original #CantSkipHope strapline first coined by Visit Portugal when the pandemic ensued in 2020 in which they called for the world to stop, pause and dream of travelling to their country in the future, is the latest callout from Portuguese tourism officials to change the way we view sustainability.

Last year the national tourism board released a key three-year framework (2020-2023) to be actioned in order to achieve the wider government-led strategy to make Portugal one of the most sustainable tourism destinations in the world by the year 2027.

For the president of Visit Portugal and chairman of the European Tourism Commission, Luis Araujo, this video sends a clear message: “This conveys our responsibilities, as a tourism destination, to the Portuguese, to tourists, to companies in the sector and above all to a planet that needs to regenerate. After launching the Sustainable 20-23 Plan (under public discussion until January 26, 21), we also assumed sustainability as the focus of our promotion, in order to prepare a more resistant, more resilient and, above all, responsible future,” he added.