The concept behind the project is for 12 graduates to start a one-year internship during which they’ll have to develop ideas meant to bring new life to the Praia do Barril beach concessions as part of the overall goal of fighting seasonality. The idea is to offer new tourism products and services aiming toward the senior and disabled citizens.

The idea man behind the project is Antonia Almeida Pires, the general manager of the Pedras d’el Rei resort; he invited the University of the Algarve to provide some academic backup and some institutional credibility to the venture.

The hope is that the project will have a positive effect on the region’s tourism industry during the low inter season, because Barril is indeed of regeneration, so the idea is to aim the project at seniors, a much more demanding market.

The interns will be the hands-on part of the approach, while the backing entities will be offering a background network meant to facilitate contacts with other entities, funding opportunities and providing their important know-how to the effort.

Around 200 University of the Algarve graduates applied for the 12 positions, so the organizers had quite the pool to choose from, and they were looking for a wide variety of fields of expertise, ranging from landscaping and management to things like marine biology and architecture.

Considering the one-year time span of the internship, during this time the interns will be staying at the Pedras d’el Rei development for free, and will be receiving a monthly wage of around 700 Euros – it’s quite a decent deal for fresh graduates.

We’ll have to keep an eye on this project this following year and see what comes of it.

And it appears that starting with the month of June the Algarve and Seville started working together in order to promote each other as tourist destinations. This new cooperation being made possible by the signing of a protocol between the Algarve Tourism Board and the Diputacion Provincial de Sevilla – or Seville Country Council – on June 10.

According to Desiderio Silva – president of Algarve Toruism – the goal of the Algarve is to have a much greater visibility as a tourism destination in Spain. The idea of securing this protocol, which will be reciprocal in terms of promotion, is just one way of achieving this goal and allowing the Algarve tourism industry to materialize projects that value both the Algarvean and the Andalusian territories.

The ceremony to ratify the document took place in Faro on June 19.

This tourism alliance wants to make the Algarve one of the main travel choices for Spanish holidaymakers, hoping to, at the same time, enhance the Iberian destinations in the eyes of Algarvians through promoting the Spanish complementary tourism products throughout the year.

During the ratification ceremony, Desiderio Silva said that the protocol should also help to ‘increase the number of Spanish visitors in the south of Portugal, and of Portuguese visitors in the province of Seville’ a desired outcome that will prove to be very positive for hotels, restaurants, and all around for the businesses in both countries.

At the ceremony, the vice-president of the Diputacion Provincial de Sevilla – Maria Dolores – was also present, and she presented Seville as a destination for Algarve residents.