The momentum that he is referring to has to do with the fact that at least till the present time, the tourism numbers in the Algarve have been showing a positive and upward trend, and that he considers that this is reason enough for the Algarve to establish itself as an all year-round destination.

He appealed to businesses operating within the Algarve tourism industry to stay open for as long as possible because in his words, it is ‘essential’ to try and ‘keep facilities and infrastructures connected to tourism open’ during this coming winter; because that’s what is needed to start the process of reaching the goal of making the Algarve into a winter destination.

Silva continued to say that the Algarve tourism industry as a whole is working on the 2012/14 winter campaign and he said that the campaign has shown very positive results in securing about 100,000 nights to be spent in the region on top of all of those already contracted for this winter.

He stressed that the region has to affirm itself as a year-round destination and in order for this to happen, each and every public and private entity have to help create the conditions so as to reach this objective.

Mister Silva is quite uniquely experienced in the subject, having been mayor of Albufeira – one of the region’s major tourist hotspots – for a decade, and now being re-elected as the president of the RTA; he is quite aware of the seasonality aspect of the region and that’s why he is trying to change that.

We can only hope that he manages to do this for the overall good for everyone.

The Olhao Seafood Festival is ongoing at the present time and will be so till the 15^th of August, so you could still make it there in time to taste some of the most delicious seafood that the Algarve has to offer, as well as appreciate some popular local live music.

Another culinary-centric event will be taking place in Vila do Bispo between August 23 and 25. This is the Festival do Perceve – barnacles’ festival – where the star of the show is the perceve, a species of goose barnacle very appreciated across the entire Iberian Peninsula. This festival complements the ones in Olhao and the Sardine Festival which ended on the 11^th.

By now you have missed the Silves Medieval Fair, which ended on August 11, however, you can set your medieval sights upon Castro Marim’s Dias Medievais, which will take place between August 22 and 25 at the town’s centre and its castle. This event too will include a plethora of tournaments, traditional games and all manner of activities related to the medieval era.

Then there’s the event which normally captivates a large number of people, Lagoa’s FATACIL, which takes place between August 16 and 25.

This event features around 600 exhibitors from the handicrafts, tourism, agriculture, retail and industry sectors not to mention great high-class entertainment such as concerts and equestrian displays.

These are just the major events that are still to take place in the Algarve, there are many more smaller parties, festivities and fairs around the region. The best way to see them is to employ some Algarve car rental services and check as many of them as possible.

The optimism for future tourism is increasing in the country, and especially in the Algarve seeing as how a large percentage of the increased tourism is in the region.

There’s a 20% growth in occupancy levels for hotels and resorts – overall – with foreign bookings increasing through the biggest tour operators.

Many tourist establishments in the Algarve have reported successful occupancy rates, some establishments predicting that 90% of their accommodations will be booked throughout the summer, while most of them confirming a positive trend in their bookings.

The Quinta do Lago golf resort revealed that it has an occupancy rate for rental villas and town homes of around 85% at the present time and that the increase in golf rounds has contributed to this higher traffic. They also added that a lot of the business was in the peak months of July and August and it was made mostly of last-minute bookings.

Desiderio Silva – president of the Algarve Tourism Board and an official who we often-times talk about here – stressed that the tourism boost to the region is thanks to the divergence of clients from the Arabian tourist destinations, who now choose European alternatives.

The occupancy rate per room reported by AHETA – the Association of Hotels and Resorts of the Algarve – was 81.6% which means a 3.7% increase from the same month in 2012, however it also showed a rather sharp contrast between foreign and national markets.

There was an important increase in the number of Irish, Dutch and British tourists to the Algarve, their numbers increasing by 29.3%, 21.1% and 17.1%, respectively – those are some serious numbers – while Portuguese and Spanish visitors decreased by almost 10%, most likely an indication of the difficult economic times that the Iberian Peninsula citizens are facing.

Well that might be a bit of an issue at the present time because quite a few cinemas in the region have been closed for some time, but it has now been confirmed that due to new management, these will be re-opened by the end of 2013.

The management of the Algarve Shopping in Guia and Continente Portimao cinema screen has been taken over by the Brazilian Grupo Orient.

An agreement was reached between Sonae Sierra – the shopping centres’ management company – and film distributor Grupo Orient, for the latter to start managing the cinema halls at the Portimao and Guia centres. Sonae Sierra has confirmed that the cinema screens will be turning on again before the conclusion of 2013.

The issue started back in January this year when the then-distribution company – Socorama Castello-Lopes – closed several cinema screen across the nation, including the ones at Guia and in Portimao, in a cutback that saw dozens of people left jobless.

At the time Sonae Sierra stated that even though they have supported Castello Lopes in order to make their cinema operations viable, the latter allowed for a huge debt to accumulate and has not presented the necessary conditions to make the business viable again. This being the reason why the closure of the cinema screens being inevitable.

So both inhabitants and visitors to the Algarve can look forward to more film-going opportunities in the future.