Half of the Algarve hotels are closed for the winter
It appears that during this cold season – the 2013 season – the number of Algarve hotels closing their doors is expected to rise according to the Portuguese Hotel Association – AHP.
We tout the idea of visiting the Algarve during the winter a lot on this website because of the reduced prices, considerably smaller crowds and milder temperatures however we’ve also talked about how the tough economic times are battering the area, and today is going to be one of the latter types of articles.
Almost half of the Algarve hotels associated with the AHP have decided to suspend their activities during the low season, for at least three months – 48% to be exact.
AHP representatives have admitted that this move is going to be bad for the region as a whole and that there is definitely a seasonality trend taking place in the Algarve, which a few years back wasn’t that prevalent. On the other hand it is a clear sign that there just aren’t enough customers for all of these hotels to continue operating through the winter season.
This seasonality phenomenon is having some effects in other regions of the country as well, not only the tourist-heavy Algarve. For instance in the Alentejo region – which is just North of the Algarve – fourteen percent of their hotels shut down during the winter, while none of them did so in 2011.
This issue isn’t the only one hitting the hotel industry in the region, with a sharp drop in prices being yet another critical matter to consider.
Between January and September of 2012, the average price of a hotel room was of 40.48 Euros, while the occupancy level overall averaged at 59.39 percent.
The capital, Lisbon, stood out by far with the biggest of price drops with the average room price dropping in September by 15.77 percent.
