The response from the hotels was not long in coming. In statements to Expressthe president of the Portuguese Hotel Association (AHP), Bernardo Trindade, reminded Cosgrave that “more than half of the annual fee that Web Summit receives from Portugal comes from tourist taxes, charged to hotels in Lisbon” – this year the Lisbon city council donated 7.2 million euros to organize the event, financed by these fees. By, SIC NewsCristina Siza Vieira (executive vice-president of AHP) added that what we are seeing is simply the law of demand and supply working (around 70 thousand participants are expected in Lisbon at the Web Summit).
In fact, and without wanting to play devil’s advocate, the phenomenon reported by Cosgrave is nothing new, both in Portugal and in the rest of the world. Just to give some examples, it was like this when Lisbon hosted the World Youth Days in 2023; It always happens in cities that host major sporting competitions such as the Olympic Games; and it was also happening in Belém do Pará, which is currently hosting COP30, where government intervention was necessary to try to control prices.
What’s really surprising is everything that Paddy Cosgrave chose to ignore in his post. And these are not details. On the one hand, forgotten that the growth of platforms like Airbnb, whose business is focused on short stays, has substantially reduced the already scarce supply of homes for long-term rental, driving permanent residents away from the city.
On the other, ignored the role that the so-called “digital nomads”, actors in this new technological world that Cosgrave promotes so much, had in inflating incomesas they arrive in Portugal with the right to a special visa (as long as they have a monthly income above four national minimum wages) that gives them tax benefits to settle in the country, working in their own name or earning international salaries that are much higher than those practiced in Portugal. Values that, of course, do not escape the eye of some landlords and give such “nomads” a clear advantage when competing, in the real estate market, for a house with other less well-off citizens.
Cosgrave wrote that he has “no sympathy” for hotels that raise prices during the Web Summit. I imagine that the feeling is exactly the same as thousands of people, those who want to live, work or study in Lisbon and are unable to do so because they cannot find an affordable home, will feel when reading the Irish businessman’s post.
Executive Editor of Diário de Notícias