A bitter exchange of statements and counter-statements has broken out recently between the Turismo de Portugal board and the low-cost, Irish airline, Ryanair, over the claims that the Portuguesse authorities have rejected the company’s proposal for increasing winter flights to Faro Airport in order to boost the number of off-season visitors.

According to the airline, it planned to introduce three new winter routes to Faro Airport, which would increase weekly flights by 35% thus increasing the traffic in Faro by about 70,000 passengers.

Then, in a press release, the Portugal tourism board said that it doesn’t have the authority to decide on such matters and that Ryanair could invest into its Faro routes however, the board did admit that it refused to pay the airline the amount of money requested in order to strengthen its presence in the Algarve because it considered it to be ‘disproportionate’ to the plan’s real value.

But it didn’t end there, it couldn’t really end there, with Ryanair then stating that with this new plan the company can cause a rapid increase in winter tourism and traffic – which would result in more jobs – because the travel sector reacts very quickly to stimulus, and then jabbed at the Turismo de Portugal saying that for an organization whose brief is to promote the Algarve, they shouldn’t ignore the continent’s largest carrier and Faro’s main airline, especially when considering that the country’s unemployment rate is at 18%

Then of course the board counter-attacked saying that they are committed to increase winter traffic to the Algarve however, this must be accomplished via correct and adequate management of public funds and a balanced strategy. They continued to say that the Irish company had already benefitted from public funds in the past, and that even though Ryanair had proposed creating new routes for the Algarve during the winter in the past, it had cancelled those plans even when funding was made available.

So it’s a giant game of ‘he said, she said’ and it remains to be seen what will happen in the future.

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.

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.

Or at least that’s what a recent ‘tourist satisfaction study’ released by Turismo de Portugal says. The overall level of tourist satisfaction is very high, stating that 34% of respondents enjoyed a holiday that was above their expectations, and a solid 85% percent of those asked said that they would certainly or probably return to Portugal within the next three years.

The Brazilians are the happiest of nationalities who visited the Algarve, however it is the Brits who are most likely to return, but this can be due to the fact that the United Kingdom is closer to Portugal.

When it comes to the reasons why tourists like it here, eighty-four percent answered with ‘nature and culture’, and that the landscapes and beaches are top notch, which is rather true it has to be said, with hospitality coming in second thanks to the ‘pleasant nature of the local population’.

The other tourism-related areas, which include activities, infrastructure and tourist information, rate somewhere about fifty percent, however the study does highlight that ‘tourist information’ and ‘rent-a-car’ companies were actually ‘below expectations’. This view of the Algarve car rental companies might be in part due to the introduction of the A22 toll taxes and such, since those have created quite a bit of issues when it comes to contracts.

The Algarve received forty-six percent of total region tourists, while Lisbon forty-two percent, so the capital is a major pull still, and for good reason.

When it comes to planning their break, forty percent of visitors found the Internet to be the main research tool, followed by recommendation of acquaintances, friends and relatives with thirty-one percent.

The study involved asking more than eight hundred individuals at national airports with tourists from Spain, UK, Germany, France, Holland, Ireland and Brazil.