"We are firmly and strongly committed to holding major sporting events in Portugal. We are committed to major events whose return is very high," said the government official during the presentation of a study on the socio-economic impact of two World Surfing League events (WSL), in Caldas da Rainha.

According to the work prepared by Diogo Melo, a master's student at ISEG, Lisbon School of Economics & Management, which had the support of the WSL, the Portuguese stage of the world circuit, held in Peniche, and the giant wave event in Nazaré produced revenue above €23 million in 2024.

"It is very significant that we all know the return we have. Even more so, when discussing the State Budget, and the citizen, who pays taxes, and is often led by public perceptions of where their taxes are spent, is left namely the return that investments give", launched Pedro Machado.

Surfing importance

The person responsible pointed to the increasingly central role of surfing in Portuguese tourism, considering that the work that has been developed is going in the right direction, taking advantage of the unique characteristics of the Portuguese coast.

"We want to capture major events that can translate the diversity of opportunities that the country has. The truth is that surfing brings other tourist products, such as in the gastronomic, cultural and religious fields, among others", pointed out the Secretary of State, who pointed out the organisation of MotoGP races in 2025 and 2026, in the Algarve, as proof of the Government's commitment to attracting major sporting events in different regions of the country.

According to Pedro Machado, Portugal has five strategic assets, which are climate, nature, light, heritage and the sea, and all of them must be leveraged to boost economic growth.

"Of course, the growth of tourism must be in harmony with citizens. It is not massification, there is not too much tourism. There is a footprint, of course. But we cannot get into the paranoia of criticizing an important activity for the country", he pondered, stating that his commitment is to "give predictability as a trust factor" for the development of different projects.

"Portugal is the 12th most competitive country in Europe, one of the safest in the world and one of the most hospitable. We have to take advantage of this", he highlighted.

Pedro Machado also gave as examples of this strategy the recent capture of the world's largest event in the congress and conference industry, which will take place in Porto in 2025, and also the organisation of the Michelin Gala in 2025, also in Porto.

In turn, Francisco Spínola, general director of the WSL for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), highlighted the role of major international events on Portuguese beaches as "determining in the promotion and consolidation of Portugal's image as a class surfing destination world".

The director said that Portugal is already the third most searched-for surfing destination in the world on search engines and the first at the European level.

Regarding the numbers released by the study, Francisco Spínola said that this is preliminary work, which will soon also be complemented with the test of the elite access circuit that recently took place in Ericeira, and that the objective is, in the long term, to extend the study across all the WSL events in Portugal.

"We are also looking with ISEG at the possibility of extending the study to the impact that the surfing industry, as a whole, has in Portugal", he revealed, highlighting the enormous evolution of the sport (which has been Olympic since Tokyo2020) in recent years.

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