Rally de Portugal Loses Its World Championship Slot for 2027, and Northern Tourism Chiefs Call It a Disaster

The Rally de Portugal will not be part of the World Rally Championship in 2027, the Automóvel Club de Portugal (ACP), which organises the event, announced on Tuesday. It is the first time since 2008 that the country will be missing from the calendar, and regional tourism bodies in the north and centre, where the rally is run, reacted with dismay.

In a statement reported by Observador and ECO, the ACP said a date had already been set for next year, 13 to 16 May, but that the Vodafone Rally de Portugal was one of the events affected by "changes made by the promoter on the last day of preparing the next WRC season", with the aim of making the championship "as geographically diverse and intercontinental as possible". The club described it as a "last-minute change" that forces a break, and said it had already held first talks with the WRC promoter about a return in 2028.

One of the championship's oldest events

The rally was first held in 1967 and was part of the World Rally Championship from its creation in 1973, when it was the third round of the season. It has been voted the best rally in the world five times. Portugal was absent from the championship from 2002 to 2006, returned in 2007 with an edition based in the Algarve, and has been on the calendar without interruption since 2009.

The event draws large crowds of spectators to forest stages and to the villages along the route, and fills hotels and restaurants for several days each spring.

"A punch in the stomach"

The reaction from the regions was immediate. Rui Ventura, president of Turismo Centro de Portugal, called the decision "a punch in the stomach" and said the rally was one of the "great international brands of our country". "We are talking about an event with an extraordinary impact on promoting Portugal abroad, on the economy of the territories, on hotels, restaurants, shops and jobs," he said, according to ECO.

Luís Pedro Martins, president of Turismo do Porto e Norte de Portugal, went further. "The exclusion of the Rally de Portugal from the 2027 World Championship is not a mere setback, it is a disaster," he said, as quoted by Jornal de Negócios, calling it "a direct blow to the economy, to tourism and to our international profile". He said a possible return in 2028 "does nothing to reassure" the councils, regional bodies and Turismo de Portugal, which have invested in the event over the years, and added: "We demand to know from the ACP what went wrong. This absence cannot become permanent."

What happens next

The WRC calendar is set by the championship's commercial promoter together with the sport's governing body, the FIA. The ACP has not said which events took Portugal's place or whether any national rally will be held in the May slot instead.

For fans who plan trips around the rally, and for the many local businesses that rely on it, the practical consequence is that there will be no world championship round in Portugal next spring. The ACP's talks with the promoter over 2028 will decide whether the gap lasts a single year.