The Via Algarviana walking trail has received a financial reprieve as those Algarve councils through which the route passes have agreed to stump up just over €1,700 each to keep the paths maintained for thousands of intrepid off-season tourists.
After the last drips of EC funding drained away this summer, the eco-organisation Almargem, which has been managing and promoting the route since it was pieced together in 2009, has faced the prospect of having to walk away from the project despite claims of the facility being an essential part of non-summer tourism by the very councils that had failed to ensure ongoing funding.
The abandonment of the walking route "would be a huge step backwards," said Anabela Santos from Almargem this March, adding that despite the financial constraints of the Algarve councils involved all, "are unanimous as to the value of the project.”
A meeting of AMAL, the councils’ forum, early this week saw an agreement reached to fund Almargem to maintain the route for the next six months with a contribution of €1,744 each.
What has not yet been decided is how the route will be managed from April 2016 with Almargem claiming to be the best placed organisation to publicise and maintain the 500 kilometres of walking trails.
An early proposal was for a two-tier management model with the creation of an association alongside an enterprise to ensure an income for maintenance of the route.
Until a future management model is decided on and ready to use, the Via Algarviana faces uncertainty.
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.
There are plans afoot to join the Via Algarviana to Spain and link Portugal to various trans-European routes but without a solid base from which to progress, and piecemeal funding from hitherto reluctant councils will allow the project to limp along but without developing.
