Castro Marim council and local businesses have found it hard fully to benefit from the growth in tourism as there is no hotel in the historic city.
This situation is being resolved with the mayor, Francisco Amaral, praising the, "de-bureaucratisation of the licensing processes and the stimulation of private initiative which have promoted the appearance of new investments."
In past years, there has been no shortage of companies willing to build an hotel in the historic town but the paperwork somehow has been too much, so why bother? - until now, with Council blessing, a project is announced with a great deal of back-slapping between the Council and a well-known local hotelier.
A new 4-star hotel, next to the kindergarten, should help the town’s employment prospects and it night-time takings as, currently, tourists have to stay outside Castro Marim, taking their wallets with them.
The first hotel in Castro Marim itself will have two floors, 44 rooms, an outdoor pool and a solarium with the investment coming from the owner of the Hotel Apolo in Vila Real de St. António.
The mayor says that his city, "was the only municipal capital in the Algarve without a hotel unit and therefore had a large gap in the tourist offer," adding that the investor has a "strong sentimental and family connection to Castro Marim."
Hence the sudden lack of bureaucracy.