A fast track to slow (and sustainable) tourism?
Portugal, gird your loins for yet another well-intentioned suggestion from a foreigner...
First published in The Portugal Resident, May 25, 2025
Jeremy, the Qigong fanatic
Gird your loins for yet another well-intentioned suggestion from a foreigner. And I say this, well aware of the sometimes grating, gratitude-driven exuberance of integration-aware estrangeiros, who start by implying that they would never patronise our hosts with unsolicited and ignorant ideas, yet minutes later, unburden themselves of a well-rehearsed list of improvements that Portugal and its people could benefit from.
In fact, I am about to host a ‘giving back’ webinar, some hours after penning this, where I expect over a hundred people will be finding out how they can “help address a major challenge in Portugal and show gratitude to the people who have made us feel so welcome”. It’s clearly a fine line to walk, when it comes to win-wins, and I would say a matter of timing too, given my own urge to splurge goodwill, before ensuring a useful context and consent.
Watch instead of read…
To make matters worse today, the big idea centres on tourism and economic sustainability, areas which the Portuguese government and population have had long enough to ponder, and actually suffer themselves, without an additional and annoying Johnny-come-lately adding his two cents to the gnarly ferment that is growth-beyond-seasonal-tourism. But I’ll persist, begging your forbearance and understanding, knowing that my intentions are sincere, even if it turns out they are unwanted.
Listen instead of read…
In my defence, I’ll own and promote the proposition, based as it is on my own hometown of São Martinho do Porto, and from the perspective of a resident with personal experience, not just a rootless expat who thinks things work better where he comes from (because I don’t, and that’s partly why I left).
I speak now from personal knowledge of the day-to-day and year-to-year workings of my seaside paradise, and was pleasantly prompted by another more recent incomer a few days ago. Those ‘just off the boat’ can have, of course, clearer and more idealistic fresh eyes, revealing new perspectives that the familiar, even jaded, have long-ago put aside or become accustomed to.
The new boy, one Jeremy Colledge, initially showed up in my digital creators group – a WhatsApp-based community that aims to support and inspire online creators like me, and who are connected in some way to the Good Morning Portugal! endeavour.
Jeremy, once distinguished to me as a Qigong aficionado, accepted my offer to be interviewed for my Portugal Club podcast about his passion, which I discovered not only pleased him but also saved his life – a former and highly successful life, although an equally highly stressed one as a trader in ‘The City’ (of London).
It was an inspiring exchange, given that I love a tale of personal transformation, and hearing about ancient wisdom that might complement our modern ideologies as well as influence any short-sightedness we may have developed in recent times.
In the course of our discussion, I was reminded that Jeremy’s beloved and ancient technique, or more accurately philosophy, is far more than mere exercise, offering potential benefit to every level and aspect of our being.
“‘Qi’ roughly translates as life force energy and ‘Gong’ as work,” says the ex-City man who’s now looking to set up a peaceful retreat centre in Portugal, and continue to share the excellent results he’s experienced ‘working with energy’ personally, and has achieved with others over a very reassuring timespan.
“I’ve been a student of Qigong for over 30 years, and a teacher for more than 20 years,” shares Jeremy who’s currently making a documentary on the subject. “I’m an insured Qigong healer and teacher specialising in all types of chronic illness. I’d spent many years searching for the ‘bridge’ between Eastern medicine and Western science until my discovery of Quantum Physics, and the path between the two is now very clear.”
When I eventually met him at the weekly meetup I host in my town, where by glorious serendipity he is also now resident, he shared with me his fondness for the energy and potential of Portugal as an attractive backdrop for his impressive and arguably much-needed work.
Furthermore, he spoke of our town’s brilliant positioning as a ‘healthy holiday’ destination, where the quieter season from October to May of every year could become a stunning and nourishing context for physical, mental and spiritual well-being.
Where Jeremy envisioned such ‘vitality vacations’ (my words, not his) centering around his discipline and expertise of choice, I could immediately and excitedly see this great and enterprising idea being extended to any and all complementary and so-called ‘alternative’ therapies.
And while this idea that deftly links barely-booked places to stay, with a delightful setting, and a growing number of holistic practitioners arriving in Portugal could occur in many locations across this wonderful country, I favour my own town for such a perfect storm of feelgood seekers, abundant accommodation and a location to die (and go to heaven) for.
Imagine then, if you will, a website that shares a splendid range of relaxing and health-enhancing therapies and modalities, along with rooms to suit every taste and budget, and even delicious itineraries of suggested sessions, places to eat, walks to enjoy, and maybe even a guided tour of nearby Óbidos or Alcobaça, whilst the healing benefits ‘sink in’?
We have the location and sumptuous setting. We have every kind of accommodation from a five-star boutique hotel to camping. And I am seeing the first few healers and health-enablers inexplicably finding their way here, just like Mr Colledge himself, metaphysically drawn by energies subtler than you’ll generally hear about in travel guides.
So, that’s the idea, tabled (next to my ‘prato do dia’) one sunny Wednesday afternoon in the very town that might benefit from the simple recognition of natural and existing assets, turbocharged by life-enhancing therapies and experiences, and made easy to book and enjoy by modern technology.
More sustainable, I’d argue too, than mere and fickle, short-season, sun-seeking in a place that has an already long-established seaweed-based gift of health that few know about as they roast on this coast.
In fact, in another delightful stroke of divine timing, the lovely Inês Parracho will open a shop in this coming week to sell her delightful ‘Poderes da Baía’ products. The origins of her lovingly-made oils and rubs, based on seaweed hand-harvested from our bay, have blessed locals for generations, offering relief to weary and inflamed joints.
Would YOU come and see us here in São Martinho do Porto for such an experience? Are you a therapist who’s looking for a cool place to settle with sun, sea, sand and perhaps a steady flow of clients? I have no doubt that local AirBnB hosts, hoteliers and restaurateurs would have no problem welcoming blissed-out, healthy holidayers throughout the quieter months of the year.
The name for such a venture? I have in mind ‘Saúde Martinho’. So maybe I should go and buy that domain right now and get ready for the ‘rush’ of sustainable, sane and healthy ‘slow’ tourism in a town near me.
More about Jeremy – www.quantumqigong.co.uk
More about Poderes da Baía – www.instagram.com/poderesdabaia