Portugal is courting Korean travelers, and young Portuguese love Korea back

Portugal wants more Korean visitors, and it says the feeling is mutual. Its tourism board flew into Seoul with a big delegation to make the case in person.

What happened?

On Sept. 21, Portugal's national tourism board held the VisitPortugal Travel Trade Marketplace Korea at The Plaza Hotel in Seoul. It brought 18 Portuguese tourism businesses and three regional tourism boards.

The goal was simple: meet Korean travel agents and tour operators, and sell Portugal as a destination.

Why now?

The numbers are pointing up. According to the board's statistics platform, TravelBI, 279,900 Koreans visited Portugal last year. That is 24.9 percent more than the year before.

Flights are catching up, too. Korean Air launched the first nonstop Incheon–Lisbon service in June 2024. Until March 29 next year, it is adding a Monday departure, which makes four flights a week.

Claudia Matias, interim director for the Korean and Japanese markets at the board, expects the rise to continue. She says figures for the first six months of 2026 already show it. Could Korea overtake China as a source of visitors? China is "a very big country," she said, but with another direct flight, to Porto, it is "feasible."

Is there more than Lisbon and Porto?

That is exactly the point of the trip. Most Koreans head for those two cities, so the delegation brought regional boards from Alentejo and Centro to show agents what else is on offer.

Matias says the country is compact and the roads are good, so combining destinations is easy. Golf in central Portugal is an hour from Lisbon, and the Algarve's top courses are two and a half hours away. Wine tourism is an hour from the capital, and beaches are 30 minutes away by train. If you want snow, Serra da Estrela ("star mountain range") is the only place in Portugal where it falls.

And do the Portuguese like Korea?

Apparently a lot. Matias says young Portuguese are "crazy about Korea": the K-pop, the cosmetics, the culture. Ask them where they want to travel, she says, and the answer is Korea or Japan.

She also pointed out that BTS filmed a video in Portugal. In her view, that growing interest is bringing the two countries closer.