Porto is at the forefront of the Portuguese creative industries, especially in design-based consumer goods in the fashion, clothing, footwear, accessories, furniture, and jewellery sectors.
Portugal’s Northern Region is recognized internationally for the quality and capabilities of its textile, clothing, and footwear manufacturers, which have long been one of the main drivers of Portuguese industrial exports. Many international fashion companies now look toward the city’s nascent fashion sector to design and manufacture the latest fashion products, or to develop new technological solutions for marketing and sales. The textile, clothing, footwear/leather industries have a significant weight in the Northern region’s economy, with a combined turnover of 7.9 billion euros and a workforce of over 152 thousand workers in 2020.
The local
creative industries work side by side with cultural tourism, cultural
marketing, and Porto’s urban regeneration movement, helping to a
great extent the international promotion of Porto’s Historical Centre. The activities associated with
the production, distribution, and promotion of cultural and creative contents
have played a key role in the industry, essentially because of the city's
recent investment in the preservation and enhancement of its cultural and
touristic heritage.
Porto also has a busy cultural agenda throughout the year, known for its
quality and excellent programming suitable for many types of audiences, such as
Portugal Fashion, the largest Portuguese fashion industry event (hosted in the
city since 1995). Venues such as the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Casa
da Música, and the São João National Theatre are particularly noteworthy.
The city’s human
resource pool has an outstanding talent in fields such as textile engineering,
fashion design, and marketing. Over 4,500 university students graduate each year
in Arts, Audio-visual and Media Production, Design, Marketing and Advertising,
Architecture and Urbanism degrees offered in Porto's macro-region1. Porto is known for its pool of "creative people” with the necessary
entrepreneurial spirit, skills, information, knowledge, and talent.
1 Northern Portugal plus a part of the Centre Region (comprising the districts of Aveiro, Coimbra, and Viseu)
Universities in the city of Porto provide key support to the creative industries through R&D activities, knowledge sharing, and the active promotion of student entrepreneurship. For instance, Porto Design Factory of Porto Polytechnic has launched, together with other entities, two acceleration programs in the field of design and music. Other key players include UPTEC - Science and Technology Park of the University of Porto, the School of Arts at the Catholic University, and the Serralves Foundation.
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