New Faro mayor Rogerio Bacalhau has noted the rise in private accommodation such as villas, hostels, guest houses and hotels in the Faro region which has developed in parallel with the type of low-cost travel tourist that stays 1.8 days and does not spend over €100 a day.
In 2008 much accommodation closed down or was withdrawn from the market especially hostels and residential accommodation. There were ten hotels and two hostels back then.
Rogério Bacalhau explained that the current increase of local accommodation provision in Faro is explained by the arrival of low cost airlines at Faro Airport which brings young couples looking for cheap deals.
"We have a beautiful old town, we have a heritage site, we have food, we have good weather, we have the airport. All these are characteristics which mean that tourists want to come to Faro" said the mayor. But this is not enough and Bacalhau envisages a building boom which he is keen to help along its way.
The mayor argues that the Faro municipality could double the number of tourist beds, currently 1,600. Faro tourist accommodation has tripled in five years and the growing demand for hospitality and an annual average occupancy rate "exceeding 80%" leads the mayor to believe that there is "positive overcrowding" in Faro therefore, despite having defined the market as low-spend, short stay, says there is a need for more hotels, including one or two five star hotels, with the capacity for conferences.
"We have one hotel that can take 300 at conference and we have a university,” but Bacalhao wants big building projects and shiny new hotels to overlook his heritage patch – “landmark hotels” no less.
Faro council aims to increase the awareness people have of Faro with tourism and cultural events and it pledges to "support private investors" by "cutting red tape, and pressing the various bodies involved in planning permission to give timely opinion and not take years."