Porto and Airbnb advocate for new tourism governance at a conference in the city

Eight years later, a period marked by constant legislative changes and a profound shift in public perception regarding tourism, this partnership has taken a new step forward with the unveiling of an innovative digital tool.

By allowing the municipality to directly monitor and oversee short-term rental listings published on the platform, this tool adds a technological layer to the partnership.

Against this backdrop, and alongside the debate surrounding the sector’s future direction, the “City Gates – The Future of Smart and Sustainable Tourism” conference was held. Co-organised by the municipality, Airbnb, and the newspaper ECO, the event sought to analyse how to reconcile economic growth with housing needs, mobility, and residents’ quality of life.

Opening session

During the opening session, Hugo Beirão Rodrigues, Porto City Council’s Councillor for Tourism and Internationalisation, contextualised the current paradigm using the OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2026 report.

He reiterated the European Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism’s call for an urgent shift from mere tourism promotion to active destination management.

The councillor underscored the sector’s economic vitality with striking figures: in the first four months of 2026, Porto welcomed approximately 870,000 guests and recorded nearly two million overnight stays, a 6% increase.

This generated accommodation revenues exceeding €126 million, supplemented by over €218 million in foreign visitor spending via bank cards.

Progressive diversification

Furthermore, he highlighted the progressive diversification of source markets, with growth in arrivals from countries such as South Korea, China, Australia, Ireland, and Poland, thereby reducing reliance on traditional markets.

However, Hugo Beirão Rodrigues warned that growth brings increased responsibilities, arguing that public decision-makers must act based on data and monitoring, under the premise that a city that ceases to function for its residents will inevitably lose its appeal to visitors.

The debate continued with an incisive intervention by the former Secretary of State for Tourism, Adolfo Mesquita Nunes, who criticised the fact that public policies are often held hostage by political slogans and unfounded perceptions rather than scientific data.

Overtourism

The former official took issue with the term “overtourism,” dismissing it as an empty concept used merely to scapegoat the sector for complex urban problems, given that it is impossible to define or control visitor numbers with absolute precision in an open, free economy.

Mesquita Nunes also mocked the notion that cities should only attract high-spending tourists, pointing out the contradiction of desiring them for the revenue they generate while simultaneously rejecting them for driving up local prices. From a global perspective, he noted that the rise in worldwide tourism directly reflects success in the fight against poverty, enabling more people to afford travel.

Adolfo Mesquita Nunes also addressed the housing crisis, rejecting the idea that short-term rentals are its primary driver. In his view, data show that the impact of short-term rentals on this issue is significantly lower than claimed; rather, the housing crisis stems from decades of insufficient new construction, slow licensing processes, a lack of public housing, and chronic failures in transport and accessibility networks that would otherwise allow populations to settle outside the city centre.

The former official praised Porto for being one of the cities that best managed to regulate short-term rentals with a nuanced, granular approach, adapting rules to the specific reality of each neighbourhood instead of imposing blanket bans.

Authenticity of historic city centres

Furthermore, he warned against romanticising the “authenticity” of historic city centres from the past, noting that such “authenticity” often masked extreme poverty, dilapidated buildings, and urban neglect.

He also recalled that the creation of the legal framework for short-term rentals during his term in office was intended to bring this activity out of the informal economy, thereby enabling municipalities today to strictly oversee and regulate it.

The perspectives of the private and technology sectors were presented by Jaime Rodríguez de Santiago, General Manager of Airbnb Marketing Services for Spain and Portugal.

He began by recalling the company’s humble origins in 2007 before it evolved into a global network with over nine million listings. He shared data demonstrating a trend toward the decentralisation of tourism in Europe: in 2018, major cities accounted for half of all short-term rental overnight stays, a share that dropped to 45% by 2023.

In Portugal, this phenomenon meant that guests using the platform travelled to over 300 distinct domestic destinations, spreading economic benefits to inland regions such as Trás-os-Montes and the Alentejo.

Rodríguez highlighted that approximately 43% of guests admitted they would never have visited certain outlying neighbourhoods in Porto had they not stayed there, thereby directly benefiting local shops and restaurants.

The General Manager concluded that the eight-year partnership with Porto demonstrates that regulated cooperation between platforms and local government yields positive results for all parties involved.

The conference also featured a panel discussion titled “Tourism Governance: Balancing Growth and Cohesion.”

Moderated by Diogo Agostinho, COO of ECO, the panel brought together Hugo Beirão Rodrigues, Luís Pedro Martins (President of the Porto and Northern Portugal Tourism Board), and Nuno Trigo (Vice-President of ALEP) to debate the use of data in regulation and the socioeconomic balance within the Northern region.

The event concluded with remarks from the Secretary of State for Tourism, Commerce, and Services, Pedro Machado, who identified artificial intelligence, climate change resilience, inter-institutional cooperation, and granular data analysis as the structural pillars for ensuring the future competitiveness of tourism in Portugal.