Lisbon’s BTL tourism fair was the perfect stage for the Algarve to announce the first direct air link to the USA, a new water-saving certificate for hotels and the launch of a Mediterranean Diet Museum. The event attracted a record 79,000 visitors.
All the unique traits that make the Algarve “Europe’s most famous secret” were showcased at Lisbon’s BTL tourism fair, which attracted a record 79,000 visitors between February 28 and March 3 in its “biggest edition ever”.
From its beautiful beaches and inland hidden gems to its delicious food and burgeoning wine sector, visitors were able to learn about everything that makes the Algarve the internationally renowned tourism destination that it is.
Eighteen hotels and tour operators and the region’s 16 municipalities were represented at the Algarve stand, where the region’s tourism boss André Gomes expressed his optimism for 2024, a year in which the region will welcome its first direct air link to the USA.
“Algarve tourism agents have worked hard to diversify what the region has to offer, and that is already being felt outside the high season,” said the president of the Algarve Tourism Region (RTA), stressing how important this is for the financial sustainability of companies and for providing year-round employment opportunities.
According to Gomes, the Algarve tourism activity is “finally achieving balance” throughout the year. “We have never had so many overnight stays between January and April and October and December,” he said.
A key factor in this paradigm change has been the Algarve’s efforts to offer tourists more reasons to visit the region outside of summer, with initiatives such as the Algarve Nature Fest, which will return in 2024 with hikes, boat trips, bike rides and birdwatching, and the Algarve Walking Season, which comprises four hiking festivals in inland regions of the Algarve and over 200 nature activities.
A new literary route inspired by Portugal’s iconic author José Saramago will also be unveiled in the region, while a new Strategic Marketing Plan for Algarve Tourism for the 2024-2028 period is being developed and is due to be unveiled in the third quarter of this year.
Another highlight for 2024 will be the start of the Algarve’s first direct air link to the USA, operated by United Airlines, with the first flight from Newark due to touch down on the region on May 25, and a direct air link to the Azores this summer, operated by SATA.
As RTA puts it in a statement summing up its hopes for 2024, “the outlook is promising and shows potential to improve the multiple records achieved in 2023,” such as unprecedented numbers of guests, passengers arriving and departing from Faro Airport and golf rounds played in the Algarve.
Mediterranean Diet Museum to open in Tavira
The opening of a Mediterranean Diet Museum in the municipality of Tavira was one of the highlights of the “Mediterranean Diet Safeguard Plan 2023-2027”, presented at BTL last week.
The plan includes the establishment of a “living museum” linked to the Tavira Agricultural Experimentation Centre. Described as an “innovative museum”, it will take visitors on a journey into the history and present of the Mediterranean diet, with the goal of promoting its products and practices in order to “reach as broad a population as possible”.
Expected to attract up to 10,000 visitors annually, the museum will also highlight the best routes and locations for experiencing the Mediterranean diet. The expected opening date has not yet been revealed.
One of the strategic objectives of the plan is to position the Algarve as a hub for research and knowledge production concerning the Mediterranean diet, which boasts UNESCO recognition for Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity since 2013.
Other goals of the plan are to map areas which are considered “important to the history of the Mediterranean and the region” and which are considered crucial for preserving regional history and fostering sustainable development.
“The safeguarding and management of these resources is extremely important in terms of preserving our identity and sustainable development, demanding the involvement of regional planning and territorial management players, but also local communities. The existing knowledge is scattered (around the region) and needs to be reorganised and promoted,” states the plan, presented to the public by the Algarve’s regional development commission (CCDR Algarve) and university (UAlg).
The plan also addresses biodiversity loss in Mediterranean habitats and foresees the establishment of a training and entrepreneurship support centre, which will offer specialised technical training in several areas linked to the Mediterranean Diet to regional stakeholders, including farmers, fishermen, food industry professionals, and community members.
The CCDR Algarve and UAlg also aim to revive and preserve forgotten traditional varieties of Mediterranean species in the region. Additionally, they plan to introduce a “Mediterranean Diet Seal” to “differentiate and value products and services associated” with the diet.
Funding for the plan’s initiatives will primarily come from the Algarve 2030 community programme. Coordinated by UAlg with input from various regional entities, the plan underwent public consultation until December last year.
The Mediterranean Diet was inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity on December 4, 2013.
Tavira was one of the municipalities which supported the bid for UNESCO recognition alongside Agros (Cyprus), Brač and Hvar (Croatia), Soria (Spain), Koroni/Coroni (Greece), Cilento (Italy) and Chefchaouen (Morocco).
Water-saving hotels to boast new seal
Another major announcement made at BTL was the creation of a new ‘Save Water’ seal for hotels and tourism accommodations in the Algarve.
The goal of the project in very simple terms is to “certify water-saving” practices. In other words, obtaining the seal implies “implementing a wide range of specific water efficiency measures”, said Algarve tourism boss André Gomes at the fair.
“(The seal) brings something that the sector itself had previously identified: that we often lack technical, specific validation of the effectiveness of the water efficiency that we have been implementing, to a large extent, at our hotels,” said Gomes.
A total of 60 water-saving measures are linked to the new scheme, which hotels can join for free.
“Of these 60 measures, any tourist accommodation unit will be able to identify which ones are already implemented, which will allow us to have a picture of the level of water efficiency in the sector in the region,” the president of the Algarve Tourism Region (RTA) told Barlavento newspaper. He added that, in turn, hotel establishments will commit to “implementing a set of additional measures by the end of the year, which will actually contribute to the goal of reducing consumption by 15% in the urban sector, in which the tourism sector is included,” he said.
The seal was due to be officially launched on March 1, but the date was delayed due to some “finishing touches” on the online platform, where all the information about the initiative will be available.
Said Gomes, the scheme will be like the ‘Clean & Safe’ seal implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The official presentation of the ‘Save Water’ seal will be held soon, “as soon as the conditions have been met for people to voluntarily adhere and begin submitting their commitments.”
By MICHAEL BRUXO
michael.bruxo@portugalresident.com
