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The governments of the two countries will promote investment in destinations and experiences on both sides of the border.

The strategy agreed for the period 2022-2024 includes four priority areas of intervention.

The governments of Spain and Portugal have just agreed to launch the Cross-Border Tourism Strategy 2022-2024 with the aim of promoting investment in tourist destinations and experiences on both sides of the Spanish-Portuguese border so that this activity becomes “an engine for sustainable development in the oldest and longest border territory of the European Union” and allows “positioning the Iberian Peninsula as one of the most competitive and sustainable tourist destinations in the world”.

The agreement was signed last week by the Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, and the Portuguese Minister of Economy and the Sea, António Costa Silva, during the XXXIII Spanish-Portuguese Summit held in Viana do Castelo, and it establishes that sustainability will be the central focus of all its actions from a threefold perspective: environmental, with actions for environmental restoration, management of natural spaces, actions to implement the circular economy, sustainable rehabilitation of buildings and actions to adapt to climate change and improve energy efficiency; territorial, to ensure the transformative impact throughout the country; and socio-economic, promoting better quality jobs, higher pay and with better performance conditions and training opportunities, but also a sector that lives responsibly with the communities in which it is developed.

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In addition, this joint promotion strategy foresees four areas of intervention: Central action between the governments of Portugal and Spain through the articulation of bilateral and multilateral policies, and promoting the development of joint instruments and projects necessary for the implementation of the Strategy; Regional action between the regions of Portugal and the autonomous communities of Spain (Galicia among them) with actions to be developed on both sides of the border with an impact on destinations, products, human resources and external promotion; Tourism sustainability plans in border destinations, particularly in the six sub-regions of the Spanish-Portuguese border (Galicia-North Portugal, Castile and Leon-North Portugal, Castile and Leon-Central Portugal, Extremadura-Central Portugal, Extremadura-Alentejo and Andalusia-Algarve, and development of tourism experiences on the border, in the areas of cultural, nature, active and food and wine tourism.