Summer in the Algarve has thousands of activities. André Gomes took seat as president of RTA, Algarve´s Tourism Board. All presidents for Algarve business´ associations and those of major associations where there, as well many of hotel-chains directors.
All present are very happy with the huge number of tourists in the Algarve, both last and this year. Many believe that the Catholic Youth meetings in Lisbon will result in lots of tourists both there and overall in Portugal, also next year.
Some said one of the problems with this sudden increase after COVID brought a huge lack of qualified manpower, which caused a quality fall in some of the services. As well as long waiting lines in some restaurants during July/August.
Most of new employees seem to come back after winter, some not. Which means that we, as many other resort areas in some countries, fight with lack of qualified manpower some months, each year. Most say we should try to prolong the tourism season, from seven to nine or ten months.
A few years ago, RTA run a tourist-attractive program, “365” which supported activities during the 4 or 5 cold months, bringing both retired and those professionals who have little to do in those months to the Algarve.
There are some 90 niches of tourism which are focused by our competitors, as Turkey, Morocco and Greece, which we could focus on.
André Gomes wishes to explore them. The Secretary of State of Commerce and Tourism, Nuno Fazenda, said he will support André Gomes. Excellent! Let´s do it!
