But not all at once. CS Group hotels at Herdade dos Salgados in Albufeira have been chosen by Mercedes-Benz from January to March this year to host a Euro Training event which will see 15,000 Mercedes salespeople visiting the Algarve.

"In January, February and March we will hold our global training event for sales of the new C-Class, GLA and S models, in the Algarve. I believe this event will benefit the country in terms of tourism revenue," said Joerg Heinermann yesterday, president of Mercedes-Benz Portugal.

Passenger traffic at Faro airport increased by 5.7% between July and September in the third quarter of 2013 compared with the same period in 2012 according to Algarve Tourism.

In the report ‘Algarve - Tourist Situation' from Turismo de Portugal and Algarve Tourism it is stressed that the Algarve "confirmed its position as the leading tourist region in Portugal in the third quarter of 2013."

AMAL, the group of Algarve council mayors, wants answers from the head of the Hospitals of the Algarve group and the Regional Health Authority about the complaints lodged by doctors about the poor working conditions in Portimão and Faro hospitals.

The president of AMAL, Jorge Botelho, said today that the Algarve’s 16 mayors met on Monday to consider the petition signed by 182 Algarve doctors who complained of a degradation in health care provided to the Algarve population citing the frequent postponement of scheduled surgeries, a lack of equipment and drugs, and delays in test results, and is to seek clarification from the relevant authorities.

Patients in recent days have been forced to wait for up to 13 hours to be seen by medical staff in the Emergency Department at the national health service hospital in Lagos due to a lack of doctors.

According to the local Communist (PCP) party,  these events “reveal the growing deterioration of the conditions in the health service and this hospital  which serves the population not only of Lagos, but also the neighbouring municipalities of Vila do Bispo and Aljezur.”

The Statutory Residency Test entered into force on 6 April 2013.

Since then, British tax officials have been stepping up their challenges on non-residency.

The test is designed to determine if an expat is liable for income and capital gains tax.

Industrial output across the eurozone jumped by 1.8% in November.

The increase was welcomed by analysts as a reasonable indication that the area is finally experiencing a modest recovery, especially after a drop of 0.8% in October.

The Netherlands is dealing with a renewed outbreak of the horse meat scandal.

An official recall has been ordered for as much as 11,000 kilos of meat believed to be horse meat but sold illegally last year in the country as beef.

The meat came from equestrian centres, pharmaceutical labs and private owners in France.

Olli Rehn, the EU’s Economy Commissioner, stated yesterday that the details of Portugal’s rescue programme were decided by the Portuguese government and not by the Troika.

Rehn was responding to questioning from the MEP Elisa Ferreira about the evaluation of the work of the Troika in those countries that had to be bailed out.