The successful and much loved Via Algarviana walking route will have no money and no management as from March 2015 so will deteriorate and the time, effort and money employed to set up this award winning route will have been wasted,
There is no maintenance for the project and no future management model, according to the Via Algarviana coordinator Anabela Santos who explained that in March the EU funds which allowed for the route’s implementation, maintenance and promotion, run out.
This is why eco-organisation Almargem brought together all those involved to discuss the future of the walking route which starts in Alcoutim on the eastern border with Spain and ends 300 kilometres later at Cape St Vincent having weaved through the Algarve’s wildest and most unspoiled terrain.
The current management have a plan to join the route to others in Spain to integrate various trans-European routes.
Anabela Santos said that over the two-day meeting the partners were faced with an end to the funding and a weakening of the management model due to a lack of cash, "So what do we do? Do we put ten years of Via Algarviana work in the bin?" she asked.
The abandonment of the walking route "would be a huge step backwards," continued Santos, adding that despite the financial constraints of the Algarve councils involved all, "are unanimous as to the value of the project.”
The proposed two-tier management model a Portuguese speciality, with the creation of an association and an enterprise to ensure an income for maintenance of the route and its promotion gave those present some legitimate doubts.
Until a future management model is decided on and ready to use, Via Algarviana will be managed for a year by a team consisting of members of the partner organisations, said Santos, adding "For these areas of low population density, this is a great route to attract people."
According to current stats from companies working with tourists who travel the route on foot or by bicycle, 90% of the users are foreign, the most common nationalities being the hardy Germans followed by Dutch, Belgian and French nature lovers.
The route is in danger of falling apart much as the ecovia bicycle track along the Algarve’s coastline has done, a wasted opportunity with zero maintenance, little promotion and signage designed to confuse and bewilder.
Off season tourism is the latest ‘in’ thing for the regional tourist board but with these two key routes in danger of being erased from the tourism offer it surely is time for a grown up approach to their funding and promotion.
A source involved in the Ecovia bicycle route project from its inception commented;
“It was a great idea, in parts badly designed, in other parts badly implemented and in other parts it did not exist at all. Since then there has hardly ever been any budget to maintain the signage so it is by no means simple to follow from end to end.
There is a section near to Faro where a landowner has fallen out with Faro council and has blocked the route and dismantled a rickety old bridge which means that the only way through is to walk or cycle close to the railway tracks.
The route between Fuseta and Olhão exists only in parts and Olhão council never supported the route and consequently its section of the route was never built or signed.
Parts of the route are fine and easily navigable, but the signage is not consistent which is frustrating for anyone trying to follow the route. Also in many sections the signs appear along sections without any junctions and then when you arrive at a junction there are no signs, just when you need one.
I also question some of the route selections for example to the west of Faro the route passes through a forest past a rubbish dump and misses one of the nicest sections in the Algarve passing through the Ria Formosa.
As you can imagine we have tried over the years to get the authorities to improve things but when they have no money and no idea it’s not easy to get anything done."
If the Via Algarviana walking route goes the same way, with zero investment despite councils giving the route their ‘full support,’ this wasted opportunity will slowly but surely lead to a lack of tourism along these routes that were a good idea, but like so many projects in the Algarve, as soon as EC money runs out they fall apart with local councils unwilling to fund projects even though they help develop tourism.
The councils’ group AMAL and the regional tourist board may yet treat these resources seriously, get them correctly signposted, maintained, fit for purpose and widely promoted to easily definable groups and societies across Europe who enjoy bicycling and walking through the natural landscape.
The Via Algarviana website link is below as it the Ecovia website which seems designed to deter visitors, with no foreign language option and a design that gives the impression of an amateur attempt badly executed.
