By: CECÍLIA PIRES
FARO’S CIVIL Governor has expressed her concern that the threat of an economic recession in the UK will lead to a further fall in the number of British visitors to the Algarve.
With numbers already down this summer, Isilda Gomes has called for tourists and investors to keep looking at the region’s potential.
Speaking exclusively to The Resident, she talked about what have been the main challenges of her latest year as Civil Governor of the most visited region of Portugal and identified some of the region’s fragilities.
About the British community living in and visiting the Algarve, Isilda Gomes says she is concerned about the economic outlook from financial experts. However, she remains confident that “resident communities will keep positive, as they have always been, about the region”.
After all, she said, “one must remember that the Algarve, as a tourist destination, was first discovered by the British visitors many years ago”. Although hesitant about giving her own review of the last year as “others are better positioned to evaluate what has been done”, she highlighted some of the campaigns launched as the most positive aspects of the 12 months.
“The themed weeks, to discuss the region’s problems and the awareness campaigns, such as the one about the clifftops and safety spots and the campaign about car accidents and safe driving” ranked top of Isilda Gomes’ list.
However, the “work with the numerous local non-profit organisations, namely the many foreign associations and charities, along with the strengthening of ties with local câmaras in joint projects, have also been very positive”, she said.
“I now have a more realistic knowledge of the region and its potential, and also its fragilities,” she said, adding that the safety issue is no longer one of them.
“Safety is very important to me, but I believe the region’s demands for reinforcement in the number of police agents were addressed by the government this year.” The region is considered one of the safest tourist destinations in the world, “but also has some criminality issues” Isilda Gomes said, calling for a more “vigilant attitude” from people who visit or live in the Algarve.
Concerning the controversial debate over the implementation of CCTV systems in some of the hot spots of the Algarve, the Civil Governor said: “I am completely in favour of CCTV surveillance under specific conditions.”
However, she added: “The issue is strictly in the hands of the national data protection commission and, therefore, new legislation is required before anything changes in the country.
“As far as I am aware, I don’t know if the government is preparing any proposal for parliament to discuss the subject.”
Quality projects
Returning to the potential of the Algarve, the Civil Governor points to the strong investment in quality projects to reposition the region in the world tourist market. “We have 12 new PIN projects approved, which means the region will soon have 10 new five star hotels and 6,000 new jobs to offer,” she said.
“We still have plenty of room for more investment in areas such as health tourism and MICE (events and seminars), which can complement the beach and golf markets in the low season.”
The only negative, said the Civil Governor, was that “the existing infrastructure is not being fully used in the winter period”.
Perhaps, surprisingly, Isilda Gomes believes agriculture still has great potential in the region.
“People have abandoned their land but they should return and invest, especially the younger generations,” she said, adding that this is going to be her next “awareness campaign”.
“Agriculture has extraordinary conditions to be developed in a profitable way in the Algarve and we really should not be putting all the eggs in one basket,” said Isilda Gomes, remembering how the region was affected by the truck strike that almost paralysed the country at the beginning of the year.
“I am not saying that people should be forced to go back to the farming activity. I just believe there is great economic potential in agriculture and that such activity can be a very interesting complement to tourism.”
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