New contracts have been signed by Turismo de Portugal in a bid to see more tourist all-year-round and they expect that this will result in an extra 20,000 tourists touching down at the Faro Airport this year.

All of these new flight towards faro will be originating from four markets that are now considered a priority by the Turismo de Portugal because they have a great potential o generating more tourists in the short-term, namely Germany, Scandinavia, Ireland and Poland. This has come at the cost of 400,000 euros which the government has invested into increasing the number of air flight routes to Faro Airport.

According to the Secretary of State for Tourism, the Algarve has to focus on receiving more winter tourists by cultivating and growing ties with airline companies and tour operators, rather than trying to attract new visitors by organizing events like concerts or parties. A representative from Turismo de Portugal has also added that this is the first time that a plan of ‘these dimensions’ has been put into practice.

Now for some Algarve related tourism numbers in order to put some things into perspective: the region sees 14.3 million annual overnight stays, with 10.9 million of these being booked by foreign visitors. In 2012, almost a half – 47% – of overnight stays took place over the summer season.

With those numbers in mind, we’ve been talking quite a bit lately about the fact that overall business is down, and has been down for the past couple of years, however the government has been taking steps to increase the number of tourists.

In 2013, during the first three months of the year for instance, the number of foreign tourists visiting the region increased by 14.5%, and that’s a pretty decent number.

We’ll just have to wait and see if and which result this new approach will have on the future of the region’s tourism.

According to AHETA, the region’s tourism potential and the air transport business should be seen as two sides of the same coin and as such they should not only be viewed together but also walk hand-in-hand. However, in recent years the two sides of the coin have been going their separate ways and this has to be brought to a point of balance as soon as possible so as to better support the Algarve economy.

We have to mention that some measures have been taken which are meant to attract tourists to the Algarve with air companies such as Ryanair and EasyJet offering low-cost flights to Faro Airport, it has become apparent that one has to maximize the hotel and resort occupation throughout the entire year in order to keep the local economies from dipping too much during the off-season.

It is quite clear – at least to the AHETA members – that the Algarve needs to regain its level of competitiveness and profitability from a few years ago, and the focus on air flight accessibility is vital to reach this goal.

It is apparent that the Faro Airport needs to be connected to several more airport hubs in Europe, and this fundamental step must be made in order to develop and raise the profits in business tourism, golf tourism and obviously all the other related industries and activities that find it hard to keep running during the low and medium seasons. In the past couple of years, many Algarve businesses – especially hotels – have been closing their doors during the winter months due to a lack of tourists.