Arick Wierson of The Robin Report tells his readers why high-end retail in Lisbon is the hot destination that shows no signs of cooling. He writes:
The topic at hand: high-end, red-hot, retail in Lisbon. As someone who lived in Portuguese-speaking Africa for many years, Lisbon (or Lisboa as it’s better known around the world), the capital of Portugal, has been a city that I find myself passing through on business several times a year.
“Nothing indicates that the ‘high-endification’ of Lisbon’s retail sector is showing any signs of slowing down. Wealthy investors from China, India and the GCC have announced a slew of new upscale hotels and commercial establishments that will certainly require more international luxury brands to set up shop in the Portuguese capital in the months and years to come. ”
In fact, in Luanda, the capital of Angola where I lived from 2009 through 2016, the running joke (and one that is actually somewhat true I might add) is that if you need to see any Angolan government minister between the months of June and August, you are far more likely to find him or her lunching at the Varanda Restaurant at the Four Seasons Ritz in Lisbon. […]
This torrent of foreign white-collar workers coupled with Lisbon’s already brimming business as a destination where Northern Europeans go to escape the colder months and everyone else escapes during their government-mandated months-long summer vacations has remade the storefronts of Portugal’s picturesque capital.
Together, these two groups – flush tourists and wealthy expats – having descended upon the Portuguese capital have created a brand new economic vitality that has had broad-reaching effects, not only on Lisbon but also on the broader Portuguese economy — and specifically on the city’s high-end retail landscape. […]
And nothing indicates that the ‘high-endification’ of Lisbon’s retail sector is showing any signs of slowing down. Wealthy investors from China, India and the GCC have announced a slew of new upscale hotels and commercial establishments that will certainly require more international luxury brands to set up shop in the Portuguese capital in the months and years to come.
Read more here.
