The Council of the idyllic, quiet, westernmost municipality of the Algarve region, has decided that what the area needs is more hotels.

Just as the tourism market changes slowly but surely away from hotels and towards short term ‘Alojamento Local’ type accommodation, Aljezur's mayor welcomes the arrival of new hotels and blames the growth in local 'AL' tourist rental properties for driving up prices and making property unaffordable for locals.

A 29-year-old woman from Vale Judeu, missing for several days, was found dead yesterday evening. Horrified dog walkers found a burnt-out car and could see a body on the back seat, gagged and tied. The vehicle was discovered on rough countryside land between Loulé and Quarteira.

According to TVI24, "the car was burned and was seen by people walking dogs in the open, around 18.30." (on Monday 27th August).

The 29-year-old British guest of billionaire businessman Jon Hunt, missing presumed dead in the Santa Clara reservoir in the Ourique municipality, has still not been found despite exhaustive searches by specialist divers.

Richard Chapelow was on holiday in Portugal as part of a group of friends of Hunt’s son, Harry.

Portugal booked over $17 billion in tourism revenue last year, according to data from the World Tourism Organisation which shows the country overtook Greece ($14.6 billion) for the first time.

In the first half 2018, tourism revenues in Portugal is close to €7 billion, an increase of almost 14% compared to the same period of last year, according to data released in August by the Bank of Portugal which it puts down to, ‘an increase in prices.’

Portugal’s national road company, Infraestruturas de Portugal, has announced that it will invest another €100 million in prettifying the nation’s crumbling road system – over the next three years.

In a statement, the company announced, "contracts totaling €107.5 million to carry out ongoing conservation work on the National Road Network over the next three years."

The occupancy rate across the Algarve’s hotel sector continues to disappoint, with July coming in below the hoped for level.

The average room occupancy rate in the region’s hotels was 83.8% in July, down 3.9% from the same period last year, according to the Algarve’s hoteliers’ association.

The city of Faro is to act as host to the Rise for Climate's 'World Climate March' on September 8th, an initiative that will take place in hundreds of cities across the world to demand greater effort and action over ​​climate change from politicians.

"This will be a march for the Algarve to come together and demand an energy transition that will remove our dependence on fossil fuels, promote the creation of jobs in the public sector in key sectors, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to demand that no infrastructure for the exploitation of fossil fuels should be built in Portugal – not off Aljezur, not at Aljubarrota, not anywhere in the country," say the local organisers.

As the summer season draws to a close, the Algarve regions’ hotels finally have agreed to pay a long overdue increase in wages and subsidy rates for their staff.

In the Labour and Employment Bulletin a review of the Collective Labour Agreement for Hotels in the Algarve was published after it was signed with the Algarve Association for the Hospitality Industry.