Visitors have already begun to arrive in Lisbon for the annual Web Summit which is taking place between 1 and 4 November and the high demand has made the prices of Local Accommodation (AL) shoot up 80% for these dates, compared to the previous month, reveals GuestReady.

The LA management company explains that there are apartments that cost more than 500 euros per night. The Baixa and Parque das Nações areas are the most expensive and where the daily rates have risen the most. "During the Web Summit, demand is always high, but this year, we noticed that occupancy grew very fast and much earlier than usual and, consequently, there was an evolution in prices in this sense", explains the director of GuestReady in Portugal and Spain, Rui Silva in an interview with DN/ Dinheiro Vivo.

The head of the company that manages more than 1,000 properties in the country adds that the entire offer is sold out and that the French, Germans and English are responsible for most of the reservations. The Spaniards and the Americans complete the top five of the main markets flocking to the capital for the technology summit.

Further afield

The Web Summit's impact on the country's tourism extends beyond the event's dates and goes beyond the capital's borders, explains the Associação do Alojamento Local em Portugal (ALEP).

"After impacting Lisbon, there is an increase in demand in other regions such as Porto or Costa da Caparica, for example", says the association's president. Eduardo Miranda adds that AL is responsible for receiving 50% of the guests at the Web Summit and calls for conditions to be created in the city for the development of the activity. At a time when new AL registrations are suspended in 15 of the 24 parishes.

"This measure is the ignorance of the reality of tourism that leads to the presentation of proposals that give catastrophic results. Such a proposal means that the WebSummit has to move to another site. Without the AL it is impossible, there is no Web Summit, nor Eurovision and others major events such as medical congresses. Before making proposals without thinking, it is important to have a knowledge of the reality", said the president of the association.