Yet again Portugal has come out on top; in tourism and also, surprisingly, at the World Living Statue festival.
For the third consecutive year Portugal was voted as the World’s Leading Destination, competing against the likes of the USA, Greece, Spain, Dubai, Brazil, India and Dubai. Earlier in the year the Algarve again won Europe’s Leading Beach Destination.
In total Portugal won 12 awards (dubbed Tourism Oscars) at the 26th World Travel Awards ceremony held in Oman. The Portuguese Secretary of State for Tourism, Rita Marques, described the ‘World’s Leading Destination’ award as a sign of Portugal’s “excellence”. She mentioned that the well-deserved prize was a result of Portugal’s approach to tourism that began many years ago and has the aim of becoming the world’s “most sustainable destination in the world”.
For Portuguese couple, Cátia Ferreira and Vítor Hugo, their crown as world champions of the art form living statues was also very much a coveted prize.
Entitled The Kiss, the couple travelled to Arnhem, Netherlands, to take part in the World Living Statues Festival. They have regularly exhibited in Portugal throughout 2018 and 2019, winning three national awards.
John Eicke, twice World Living Statue winner and International Art Director of the festival, explained that “a good living statue must be multi-talented and have an unprecedented artistic quality.”
Our congratulations to Catia, Hugo and of course Portugal.