The new Conrad Algarve Hotel located in Quinta do lago will be going head to head for the title of ‘Europe’s Leading Hotel’, ‘Europe’s Leading Resort’ and ‘Europe’s Leading Golf Resort’.

Then there’s the exclusive Vila Joya Hotel located in Albufeira which is a contender in the categories of ‘Europe’s Leading Boutique Hotel’ and ‘Europe’s Leading Boutique Resort’ – the latter is an award that it has been winning every year since 2005.

The Martinhal beach Resort & Hotel in Sagres is competing for the ‘Europe’s Leading Family Resort’ and ‘Europe’s Leading Villa Resort’ awards.

Other nominees from the Algarve include the Club med da Balaia in Albufeira – ‘Europe’s Leading All-Inclusive Resort’ – the Sheraton Pine Cliffs Resort, also in Albufeira – ‘Europe’s Leading Resort’ – and the Dona Filipa Hotel & San Lorenzo Golf Resort in Vale do Lobo – ‘Europe’s Leading Golf Resort’; then there’s the Longevity Wellness Resort in Monchique – ‘Leading Spa and Wellbeing Resort’ – and the Quinta do Lago Hotel – ‘Europe’s Leading Golf Resort’.

The head of the Algarve Toursim Board – Desiderio Silva – commented that these many nominations are further ‘proof of the quality of our region – a region of excellence’.

Portugal was chosen as ‘Europe’s Leading Golf Destination’ in the 2012 World Travel Awards, and this year it is defending that award from very stiff competition coming from England, France, Germany, Scotland and neighboring Spain.

The other heavies that the Algarve is contending with in the ‘Leading Beach Destination’ awards are Cannes – France, Corfu – Greece, the Emerald Coast – Italy, Formentera – Spain, Marbella – Spain and Oludeniz – Turkey.

This year will be the 20^th anniversary of the World Travel Awards, and the awards are given by professionals from the travel and tourism sectors from around the world.

According to the Tourism Board, the indicators are very positive in relation to the upcoming tourist season, especially when looking at the hotels’ preliminary spread sheets.

Desiderio Silva – the head of the regional Tourism Board – mentioned that there are units that are expecting their occupation rates until September or October to be much higher than what they initially predicted.

Speaking at the presentation of the Algarve Tourism Memorandum – a document lsiting various proposals as to how tourism can be improved within the region of the Algarve, Mr. Silva mentioned that this year both the French and the German markets have picked up after dropping in the number of tourists coming to Algarve in the past few years.

According to his estimations, the Algarve will most likely see more visitors from neighboring Spain as well, because due to the economic hardships they’ll opt for closer holiday destinations, and there are none closer than Portugal of course.

It is expected that more residents from Galicia and the Spanish Estremadura would more likely visit the Algave than those from actually neighboring Andalucia because they won’t have to pay any tolls on the motorways as opposed to the tolls required to get on the A22/Via do Infante.

The Algarve Tourist Memorandum features proposals based around the five pillars of air accessibility, touristic promotion, tax competitiveness, tourist products and the modernization of the destination as a whole.

We’ll just have to wait and see if these predictions actually come to fruition.

This controversial ruling – which stems from a law from 2005 – has been widely contested by many political groups for being ‘unconstitutional’ and ‘inaccessible’ to the majority of people who might find themselves under its scope.

‘Hydric land’ refers to properties on land located within fifty metres from the sea or clifftop edge and within thirty meters in the case of a riverbank.

The thing is that most people have no inkling of the existence of this ancient law which originally dates back to 1864 and many political groups have contested the complexity of such a process, especially when owners are given such a short timeframe, not to mention the bureaucratic and legal costs involved as well as the mandatory hiring of a lawyer to present a court case, it is in one word, preposterous.

There are rumors that the government is considering extending this deadline but so far the date remains unaltered and property owners affected by the law must move swiftly in order to ensure that they meet the January 1 deadline.

Lawyers have admitted that the legal process involved with this law is quite complex, time-consuming and of course, costly.

It’s interesting how despite the seemingly unworkable stipulations of this ancient law, there are no plans to abolish or revoke it in any way, not even to offer an extension of the deadline, it boggles the mind.

The possible result and repercussions of enacting this law are yet to be fully understood, we just have to wait and see what, if anything, happens till the end of this year.

The Algarve ports lost their autonomy after the creation of the port and Maritime Transport Institute – MTI – in 2002, in effect taking the decision-making process away from the place that would be most affected, the Algarve region.

Regional administrations were created in 2008 for the ports of Figueira da Foz and Viana do Casteloe in order to free the MTI – the Douro/Leixoes, Aveiro, Lisbon, Setubal/Sesimbra and Sines ports were already managed independently.

But even so, the Algarve had nothing to say in regards to these independent administrations which made it the only region not in control of any of its own twelve fishing ports, three commercial ports, four marinas and six recreational ports.

For a while now there have been various individuals who have said that the MTI hasn’t been giving enough importance to the regional port management which in turn has prevented the Algarve ports to receive much-needed investments. This has also lead to a lack of improvements in terms of maritime accessibility and the connections with other means of transport have also been neglected.

The workers of the Algarve ports have issue a document stating their views on the subject as well, saying that it is quite incomprehensible how the region of the Algarve, with the maritime capabilities at its disposal, doesn’t have any say in how those affairs are conducted.

They also emphasized that the ports are an important part of the Algarve’s economy and a sector which can still see growth for a long time.

It remains to be seen whether or not some measures will be taken as a direct result of the various official channels that have been used to solve this conundrum.

The goal of the Indian company is to set up a European office in Portimao and to establish a production partnership for the production of Indian films in Portugal.

Luis Marreiros – CEO of Picture Portugal – considers this partnership to be nothing but beneficial considering that they’re allying themselves with one of the world’s leading film producers.

He continued saying that the next step is to internationalize the project by obtaining foreign collaboration and that via the Indian company, Picture Portugal can get into the Indian market and get Indian producers interested in shooting in Portugal, which would be great for the local and regional economy.

The idea is that Real Image – the Indian company – will maintain contact with their European customers via the Portimao office and will also strive to create new partnerships between producers from the two countries in order to produce new feature films.

As far as Picture Portugal’s part goes, it has confirmed its work into developing a ‘series of intensive contacts’ with India and that this sort of ‘antenna’ into that country and market is relevant primarily as a service provider however it can also result in number of benefits to the overall Portuguese tourism sector.

The hope is that possible film productions can bring crucial income to the region during the tourist low season, not to mention the fact that it can create hundreds if not thousands of jobs for specialists in the field who are otherwise jobless. Portugal does have quite a few advantages thanks to its developed infrastructure, astounding natural beauty and diversity of landscapes.

Picture Portugal has already collaborated with various other foreign companies from the US, Europe and Asia, and they’ve praised Portugal for the quality of its technical and human resources, its accommodation facilities and the wide array of possible filming locations.

We’ve been talking a fair amount about the various discussions and policies taking place or being implemented, and this is one of them. This partnership also includes several marketing campaigns that are part of a larger promotional action approved by Turismo de Portugal for 2013.

These strategies have been implemented by ATA since January with the collaboration from a variety of tour operators from many European countries including Germany, the UK, Spain, The Netherlands, Ireland, Poland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Austria, Belgium and France.

According to this overall plan of ‘attack’, a total of 29 campaigns will be launched throughout this year as part of the ‘sun, sea and golf’ promotional message meant to attract more visitors to the Algarve.

Part of this overall plan is a strategy to support the airlines with ATA aiming to not only consolidate existing tourism routes but also to create new connections in order to attract other potential markets, farther away markets such as Canada for instance. As we mentioned earlier, eleven airlines will be receiving the full support from the association to carry out a variety of localized promotional campaigns in countries like Canada, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Holland, Ireland, the UK and Germany.

It’s pretty clear that there are several potential and emerging markets that are yet to be covered by this strategic plan from the Algarve Tourism Association , places like Russia and other Eastern European countries. For these regions, ATA has chosen the option of ‘taking the Algarve to them’, by way of making presentations and workshops in the main cities of these various countries and inviting tour operators, travel agencies and journalists to learn about and visit the Algarve.

Fiesta was first held in 2003, it is a mega exhibition of sand sculptures that takes place in Pera, Algarve, and every edition has its own theme.

This festival and has grown in the past ten years and it is now regarded as the largest sand sculpture exhibition in the world, using about 35,000 tons of sand each year.

Fifty artists from around the world are invited to sculpt the sand on a construction area covering 15,000 square meters, with sculptures that can reach up to twelve feet tall. The preparations for the festival take about eight weeks because the sand has to be watered, piled and compacted into the shape needed for the scenes to be crafted.

This year, Fiesta’s theme is music and the music scenes from around the world, with all genres planned to be represented from rock’n’roll to classic, to dance and even religious music.

The festival will actually run until October and it will be open for every day of summer between 10AM and 12 AM.

The festival also incorporates several playful interactions with the visitors, with space for various sand sculpture activities being dedicated to adults, teens and children each day.

The Fiesta 2013 exhibition will be open to the public between May 25 and October 25 as follows:

-          Between May 25 and June 27 it will be open from 10AM until 22PM;

-          Between June 28 and September 15 it will be open from 10AM until Midnight;

-          Between September 16 and October 25 it will be open from 10 AM until 8 PM.

Fiesta is arranged in an outdoor enclosure, so it will be subject to the weather and so the opening times might change according to this.

The study assessed 140 worldwide economies and took into consideration the competitiveness of these countries in regards to travel and tourism under the chosen theme of ‘Reducing barrier to economic growth and job creation’.

The report is meant to explore the potential and influence that the travel and tourism industries in general have in regards to a country’s economy and also takes into consideration the creation of jobs, which is essential for the proper development of any country.

So on this list of 140 countries, Portugal placed seventh, behind a couple of unexpected places such as Senegal – sixth – and Macedonia – fourth. The top three friendliest places are Iceland, New Zealand and Morocco.

The President of the Algarve Tourism Board, Desiderio Silva, stated that this favorable positioning of the entire country is thanks to the tourism industry’s approach to its visitors’ needs and requests. The Portuguese people being hospitable in general, but when helped by high quality products in all facets of tourism, coupled with the natural beauty, warm climate and unique gastronomy and culture of the country, it can only boost the way in which they’re perceived by foreigners.

We would like to add that all of the characteristics that we mentioned earlier are available in spades in the Algarve, which can be seen as a microcosm of everything that is great tourism-wise, about the country.

The study has also taken a series of other factors into account, such as the overall tourism infrastructure, economic, legal, environmental and cultural factors, as well as the tourism labor market.

Overall, the various indicators place Portugal in 20^th place when the other placements are taken into account.

It appears that a similar project is underway for regional tourism as well, because what better place to start promoting one’s touristic capabilities than in one’s own country.

The project is called ‘Rediscovering the Algarve’s Secrets’ and is part of the tourism authority’s push to show both journalists and tour operators alike some of the region’s hidden gems. Focusing on the ‘hidden’ part might just be one of the things needed to boost the region’s tourism, since the major gems are quite popular by now.

The first of these ‘familiarization trips’ will be held in Alcoutim on April 18 and the twenty participants will be exploring the region as well as its tourism potential as well as partake in a number of special activities prepared for their enjoyment.

A statement from Desiderio Silva – the president of the Algarve Tourism Board – said that journalists are needed to be made aware of the Algarve from a different perspective, so that they can then in turn help to ‘sell’ the destination much better through their own experiences. The idea behind  this initiative being that the Algarve has many more points of interest with high tourist potential that are not known to the wider holiday-making public, and this will definitely help.

Other familiarization trips are planned to take place until the end of the year, with the next one taking place in Albufeira in May.

A great idea, and quite an innovative one, showing that the Algarve Tourism Board is seriously looking into all sorts of solutions to their overall problems; the effects of this project won’t be very large and most likely won’t be seen for a couple of months at least, but they project is definitely a step in the right direction.

A recent survey amongst local property agents has revealed that buying and selling of property during 2012 has shown some improvement when compared to the past couple of years. In fact, about seventy percent of the leading Algarve property agents who took part in the survey are of this opinion.

The 10-10-10 Survey – as it is called – contains ten key conclusion, and was a joint project between ILM Group and Property Lynx. The survey is carried out three times per year and its goal is to measure market confidence, performance and market trends – the next one for instance will be completed in May 2013 with its results becoming available in June.

The majority of participants reported the enquiries, offers and transactions and offered evidence of enquiries leading to complete purchases. For instance, 26 percent of enquiries for villas and luxury villas converted into 27% of sales, not a bad conversion percentage indeed.

Interestingly enough, the market is dominated by the top end and middle range, meaning that 27% of transactions were at more than one million euros – which is a 175 increase compared to 2011 – while transactions in the 100,000 to 500,000 euro bracket accounted for 51% of the market.

The survey also revealed that the overall market demand has been hindered by several motives such as pricing factors, lack of finance opportunities and unreliable banks, as well as general concerns in regards to the Euro’s stability.

Another major problem that the Algarve agents reported was the lack of support from the government and the regional and local authorities, as well as with the overall promotion of the region. They said that they cannot compete with other destinations when the focus of the region’s tourism industry stays on golf and the beach.

On the other hand, the survey does conclude that the regional agents, operator and developers are overall optimistic about 2013’s prospects, optimism that is propped up by the Portuguese government’s commitment to market the ‘Living in Portugal’ initiative.