The economic features, internal structure and strategy of the emerging Portuguese maritime cluster

• Portugal is the EU member state with the largest area of jurisdictional waters in Europe.
• UN continental shelf negotiations will make Portugal maritime space represent more than 80% of the EU terrestrial area.
• Intermediate linkages between Portuguese maritime sectors are weak.
• Maritime activities are focused on transports, ports and recreational boating.
• Inquiries and the Delphi panel show that a clear and consensual strategy is still missing.

The article analyses the emerging Portuguese maritime cluster and the best strategy and policy-mix for its successful development. Despite its large maritime resources, the country has turned its back to the sea during the last 40 years and only recently has started to return to it. But the gigantic shift in the marine activities and policies during this period call for researchers to provide information regarding the new role of the maritime economy.The paper assesses the Portuguese maritime cluster through three different methodologies: the input-output (I-O) analysis; an inquiry to the seventy firms who integrate the “Forum for Entrepreneurship in Maritime Economy”; and a two-round Delphi panel near fifteen experts. Quantitative and qualitative methodologies were as such put together in order to confirm one another and to get a concise snapshot of the present situation in order to confirm the best political approach to follow.The basic results are: (i) intermediate linkages between maritime sectors are weak, especially when compared with other EU maritime clusters, while intra sectoral relations (inside each sector) are more important; (ii) the sectors with higher Keynesian multipliers' values (both type 1 and 2) are “maritime transports”, “ports” and “recreational boating and marinas”; (iii) these same sectors present the best results in what other indicators are concerned (Hirschman-Rasmussen indexes; fields of influence; scattering indexes); (iv) the weight of maritime activities in GDP and total employment is important and above EU average; (v) the inquiries and the Delphi panel results show that it's not clear to stakeholders which is the best political strategy to follow; (vi) the authors propose that priority should be given to the three sectors referred above, mainly “ports” and “recreational boating and marinas”, where large firms with sound financial situation and good business perspectives can be found.