Could Scotland learn from Portugal on how to promote itself and its produce better to international tourists? Having recently spent time in Portugal’s two biggest cities, Lisbon and Porto, it is certainly tempting to think so.

Meander through the charming and welcoming, not to mention hilly, streets of both cities and you can barely move for outlets eager to showcase the country’s delicacies, be it the famed pastel de nata custard tarts, freshly caught Atlantic seafood, or the Port maturing in the many warehouses that line the banks of the Douro River in Porto.

And far from a feeling of overkill, it seems tourists can scarcely get enough of it. For many travellers, a great joy of visiting a new country is to discover its finest food and drink and in Portugal they make it very easy for you to do so.

City streets are jammed full of bustling cafes and restaurants specialising in local produce, from the mind-blowing array of sweet pastries to the omnipresent bacalhau (salted cod). And the great thing is, the prices are generally a lot more competitive than they are here.

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As we took advantage of the culinary pleasures Portugal has to offer, the thought occurred that this is a country more adept than Scotland at marketing its food and drink assets to visitors.

That is not so suggest Scottish food and drink is not promoted well. The food and drink industry here has long since recognised the potential global appeal of premium goods such as Scotch whisky, seafood, beef, and lamb, which are now promoted extremely successfully on the world stage. You only need to glance at the export statistics for whisky and salmon to get a sense of how lucrative the industry has become.

However, when it comes to promoting our food and drink on the ground in Scotland, there is arguably much less obvious messaging about local goods in our restaurants and bars. Sure, there are scores of high-quality outlets and chefs that do champion Scottish produce on their menus, but it is far less widespread than in the teeming streets of Porto and Lisbon, where there are far fewer restaurant chains and the promotion of the local dishes is very much the order of the day, no matter the size of the business.

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Equally, the major drinks producers in Portugal have a very visible presence, especially in Porto, where you are left in no doubt about the importance of the historic Port industry to the economy.

Indeed, looking over the Douro from its famous bridges or cable car, the skyline is dominated by names such as Sandeman, Graham’s, and Dow’s on the Vila Nova de Gaia side of the river.

A cellar tour of one of the many Port houses, which make their wine from grapes grown in the Douro Valley, is a great way to learn about the industry and while away a few hours out of the sun, and not least because of the quality of facilities on offer. We enjoyed a guided tour and tasting at Porto Ferreira, founded in 1751, which provides the kind of experience that Scotch whisky producers have been striving to develop over recent years, having also recognised the potential that tourism of this nature has to offer.

Coupled with very visible advertising from major brewers such as Sagres and Super Bock, Porto appeared to be very relaxed about the presence of alcohol branding around the city.

This seemed interesting in the context of the recent debate around proposals to restrict alcohol advertising and marketing in Scotland, which in their original form would have outlawed the kind of branding that is so visible and woven into the fabric of the Porto economy. One would imagine the authorities in Porto have no plans to follow a similar path to Scotland, where a fresh set of proposals is expected to be brought forward after the original measures were so vigorously opposed by the drinks industry.

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Yet it would be wrong to suggest Portugal is getting everything right when it comes to the visitor economy. The existing Humberto Delgado Airport in Lisbon was badly under-resourced from a passport control perspective when we passed through, which appears to be at least partly the result of the country’s rapidly growing popularity among tourists. Brexit would also seem to be a factor from the UK traveller's perspective, as queues for EU citizens moved far more quickly.

Prime Minister Luis Montenegro announced plans to build a new international airport at Alcochete, across the River Tagus from Lisbon, in May. The new airport is expected to be ready by 2034 and will replace the Humberto Delgado hub, which will be extended in the meantime, Reuters has reported.

Porto and Lisbon also displayed signs of over-tourism and the risks this can perhaps represent. Of course, it is only to be expected that such popular cities are heaving with people at the height of summer. Lisbon has become a go-to European destination for many travellers over recent years and Porto is emerging strongly on the tourist circuit too, with everything pointing to visitor numbers rising further still.

But while tourism brings much-needed money and employment to the cities, there are less-welcome effects too. Residential accommodation in parts of Lisbon is increasingly being snapped up for use as holiday lets, pushing up property prices and reducing the supply of homes for local people. If this sounds familiar to people in Edinburgh and Cornwall then that is because it is.

However, Porto and Lisbon are ahead of Scotland when it comes to transient visitor levies. A tourist tax of €2 per person per night is charged on visitors to Porto and Lisbon, helping both cities address the financial impact that high numbers of tourists can have on local infrastructure.