Berta Cabral also rejected the idea of ​​“wild capitalism” or “mass tourism” mentioned in the political intervention of BE deputy António Lima.

“In our region we are very far from any massification. There is a huge potential for tourism growth in the Azores. To be clear, the tourist intensity in the Azores is 12. In Madeira it is 32 and, in the Canaries, 45. As for tourist density, in the Azores we are almost 10% of Madeira”, noted the regional secretary of the PSD coalition executive /CDS-PP/PPM.

Bad examples

Nuno Barata, from the Liberal Initiative, a deputy who signed a parliamentary advocacy agreement with the PSD, reacted to Berta Cabral's statements by saying that he does not want the Azores to be compared “with bad examples from other Atlantic archipelagos”.

“I don't want, and I think most Azoreans don't want to, turn the Azores into Madeira or the Canaries. Using density indicators to say that the Azores are far from it cannot mean that the Azores should follow this path, quite the opposite”, he defended.

António Vasco Viveiros, from PSD, regretted that BE only sees “the negative aspects of tourism”, noting that the executive’s strategy for the sector is in the Government Program and concerns “sustainable development”.

“Tourism currently generates 20,000 jobs”, he highlighted, considering that Berta Cabral “did not say that Madeira and the Canaries were an example for the region”.