The Algarve has a new association which aims to research, discuss and propose solutions to the region's challenges.
The Union for the Algarve’s Future, shortened to União AlgFuturo, rapidly is attracting members, many of whom are suspicious of the official government statistics for the Algarve which seem to not reflect the reality of economic life in the country's premier tourist zone.
Business owners, mayors, former mayors, university professors, health care workers and other professionals make up much of the membership of the non-profit organization all of whom are keen to cut through the political waffle and get to the truth.
The first action of AlgFuturo Union was to study and report on the various regional tourism statistics: the results are startling with a new estimate that between 2008 and 2014 the Algarve suffered a drop of around €10 billion in transactions and consumption.
Tourists are spending less and the VAT rate of 23% for the restaurant sector has had a far more damaging affect than the official statistics suggest.
This €10 billion figure is the equivalent of over 30% of the region’s gross domestic product and is 30 times more than the €327 million in EU funds that the Algarve is due to receive over the next seven years.
The study has brought "the truth to the public for the first time" with the opinions of several operators in the tourism sector confirmed – the government stats may have been hiding the reality of the Algarve’s economic situation.
Elidérico Viegas, the president of the Algarve’s hoteliers’ association AHETA, said that the trumpeted increase in the number of tourist businesses opening in the Algarve simply was not correct.
Now there is research to back up the claims that the Algarve, responsible for 40% of the country's tourism income, has been hard hit in an austerity period that saw taxes and other costs rise while tourist numbers dwindled.
