The Algarve’s very own André Jordan, founder of Quinta do Lago and other major tourism developmEnt, has been recognised at the World Travel Leaders Awards for 2014 for his contribution to the development of tourism in the region.
The award was given to a delighted Jordan at the 35th Tourism World Travel Market event in London where he was hailed as one of the dozen most influential people in tourism in the world.
Nominees were pre- selected by the tourism event's media partners and the winners were selected by a panel composed of luminaries from the industry who decided on those companies and individuals who have made significant contributions to tourism in their region or sector.
André Jordan created Quinta do Lago in 1971 and the resort still is recognised as one of the top developments in the world.
Jordan sold his interests in Quinta do Lago in 1980 and became director of Bovis Abroad. In the 1990s he created the Belas Clube de Campo and in 1995 acquired Lusotur, the owner of a residential and leisure complex in Vilamoura.
The senior director of the Tourism World Travel Market event Simon Press said that "André Jordan has been instrumental in helping develop the Algarve and making it the popular tourist destination that it is today"
Andrzej Franciszek Spitzman Jordan was born on September 10th, 1933 in Lwow, Poland. At the age of six he emigrated with his family to flee from the danger of the Nazi invasion and war.
They crossed Romania, Italy and reached Paris. With the threat of the Nazi invasion in France, they headed for Portugal.
When a year later the family seems to have found some peace, his mother is convinced that Hitler will soon invade the Iberian Peninsula and wanted to flee once more, this time to Brazil.
Still in his youth, André Jordan set off to study in the United States where he lived through the post-WWII years of democracy and human rights.
At the age of 20, Jordan began working with his father and in 1961 he moved to Buenos Aires taking on the leadership of a large real estate development in the capital.
In 1968, Jordan was invited to work in the United States for Levitt & Sons in New York, the largest American real estate company at the time, where soon he was made a director.
Jordan set up company satellites in France and Spain, but quickly realised that his vocation was not as an executive, but rather, as a businessman. He returned to Paris where among other things, he represented a development in the Bahamas.
That same year, Jordan went to Portugal looking for a property and investors who helped him in the construction of the first 'country club' style resort in the Algarve.
It was Portugal’s first real step in the world of international tourism. Promoting Quinta do Lago automatically gave way to promoting the whole area of the Algarve to overseas clients. When Quinta do Lago was launched it quickly became an “in” place.
The Portuguese dream was interrupted by the Carnation Revolution. April 25th 1974 was the beginning of a crisis in the country and since Quinta do Lago was its only investment at the time, it fell under state intervention. Jordan returned to Brazil.
In 1980, Quinta do Lago was released from state control and Jordan returned to Portugal. Nine years later he sold it on and has been involved in major developments ever since.
