“Why is everyone going to Portugal?” a friend asked when I told him I was going there for a visit.
People travel for many reasons, but visiting friends and relatives is one of the largest and most resilient segments of the travel industry. Travellers spend over US$400 billion a year doing it.
While saying “everyone” is going to Portugal is a bit of an exaggeration, more than 21,000 Americans have moved there, either permanently or as temporary residents, in the last few years. They are the largest group of transplants, followed by the Chinese. Fifteen per cent of Portugal’s 10.6 million residents are from outside the country.
Porto’s housing stock spans the centuries and housing costs are lower than in other developed countries. Photo: TNS
I had visited Lisbon once, in the 1980s, staying at what is now the Lapa Palace Hotel, then owned by the Orient-Express Hotels group, when it was affordable.