The new Secretary of State for Tourism, Ana Mendes Godinho, chose the Algarve in which to commence information finding sessions with Portugal’s various regional tourism bodies.
Godinho kicked off in Faro where she met the heads of the Algarve Tourist Board, the Intermunicipal Community of Algarve (AMAL) and David Santos from the Commission for Coordination and Regional Development of the Algarve.
Having got the low down from these three, the new Secretary of State met representatives from business associations, Faro airport, various trade unions, local MPs and various other industry big-wigs.
Topics included the old chestnuts of seasonality, how to boost tourism in the off-season, vocational training, unemployment and the current measures in place that are meant to be supporting tourism businesses.
Ana Mendes Godinho promised to return to the Algarve in January next year with some solutions.
Tourist board boss Desidério Silva commented, "One of the priorities of the Tourist Board has always been to deepen the strategic links between the regional partners of the travel and tourism industry and national decision makers.” This vacuous statement adds little to the debate.
Godinho’s agenda included a visit to Faro’s School of Hospitality and Tourism of the Algarve and Pestana’s latest project in Alvor, Pestana Alvor South Beach, which received a grant from the JESSICA fund (Joint European Support for Sustainable Investment in City Areas) which awarded EU Structural Funds to a private company whose project appears not to fit the stated criteria.
While the Secretary of State enjoys her Christmas break, hopefully she will mull over the Alojamento Local scheme’s bureaucracy which has driven many holiday accommodation owners underground due to its intrusive complexity, the tolls on the Via do Infante which have soaked up development money from business owners, VAT on golf, recent abuses of low waged staff in the tourism sector who have had to protest to get their due remuneration, the new motorcaravanners charter which appears to have gone only half way in solving this perennial source of conflict, the abuse of customers by certain car rental firms and ANA’s harsh price rises for transfer companies using Faro airport.
All points on the above list have an effect on tourism and are easy to solve, except maybe the ANA pricing question, and it will take a firm Secretary of State to see through the necessary changes.
Then there's the threat from oil companies which want to turn the Algarve into a hydrocarbon production zone just as the Paris Agreement sees world leaders agree to switch from fossil fuels to green energy over time.
Adolfo Mesquita Nunes, Godinho’s predecessor, failed on all points and the Algarve awaits her return in January with great expectations.
