The Secretary of State for Tourism changed his coat and tie for a diving suit and let himself sink in the waters, which are not very hot today, near Ponta João d'Arens, on the coast of Portimão. It was a way of giving visibility to diving tourism, a market niche that has all the potential to grow in the Algarve.
But the pretext for Adolfo Mesquita Nunes' visit is the project Ocean Revival, an underwater park resulting from the sinking of former Portuguese Navy warships about two miles off the coast of Alvor.
Two were sunk on October 30 of last year and in these six months have already motivated close to 2500 dives, while the third of the four ships in the project left Lisbon this morning, should arrive in Portimão tomorrow and will be sunk, with pomp and circumstance, on the 15th of June. The fourth ship is due to sink on September 21st.
«Tourism linked to the sea is one of the areas where we are operating. A joint effort is being made by the various tutelages to boost this sector», stressed the Secretary of State, in statements to journalists, still on board the boat and right after his baptism of diving.
Adolfo Mesquita Nunes explained that nautical tourism and maritime-tourism activities are considered strategic areas for tourism in Portugal and highlighted the effort that has been made to simplify processes: "we have already changed the legal regime for tourist entertainment" , namely lowering the fees payable by 70%.
The government official also said that, with regard to financing mechanisms, these "were directed towards the construction of accommodation, but we are now directing them to other areas, namely tourist entertainment".
All good news. But does this really interest diving tourism that the Ocean Revival project intends to promote in the Algarve? Luís Sá Couto, from the company Subnauta, founder, with the Câmara de Portimão, of the Musubmar association and the main mentor of the project, highlighted the competitive advantages of the Algarve in relation to well-known and consolidated diving destinations: «we have security, we have reasons of interest, not only those that already existed, but now this underwater park, we have an integrated complementary offer, which can even be useful for the diver to bring his family here, which does not happen in other more popular destinations, such as the Red Sea».
In the presentation that Luís Sá Couto gave about this project, still on dry land, at the headquarters of Subnaut in Praia da Rocha, he pointed out that the Algarve currently registers 10 dives a year, a number that is expected to reach «90 to 100 dives in 2022, ten years from now». It will be, even so, a very small share of this millionaire diving market. «Currently we have 0,31% of the market share in Europe, in 2022, if we reach the desired numbers, we will have 1,88%. It's perfectly possible».
Promotion, needed!
«We have the product, we have good wine, good food, good people, security, other things for the family to do, and our product is cheaper», insisted Luís Sá Couto, already on board the vessel that took the Secretary of State, the President and Vice President of Tourism of the Algarve, the staff from Subnauta and journalists to the dive site.
So if the Algarve has all that, what's missing? The promotion is missing. Luís Sá Couto pointed out that it is now necessary to promote abroad, namely in the English, Irish, German and Nordic markets. And this promotion, he underlined, must be carried out by Turismo de Portugal, with diving being part of «the integrated offer of Portuguese tourism».
Desidério Silva, president of Turismo do Algarve (TA), stressed that this entity, in terms of its competences, is already working in this direction. «As for the Scandinavian market, which we want to recover, we are working with operators so that there are flights to the Algarve. Without that, tourists don't come». Within the new management and performance model of Regional Tourism Entities, the Algarve will also “contract with Turismo de Portugal the external promotion of the destination”.
Regarding Spain, the TA will sign, in the coming months, cooperation protocols with the Deputación de Seville (Andalusia), Badajoz (Extremadura) and Pontevedra (Galicia), which will give, in the words of Desidério Silva, «a new capacity to promote the region in these markets'.
The secretary of State, in turn, revealed the new strategy for promoting Portuguese Tourism abroad, which involves "segmenting the messages" and thus directing it to more specific audiences, instead of having "a single generic message" . A way of focusing attention on market segments that can be complementary to each other, such as diving, but which all contribute to the same purpose: to reduce seasonality and increase tourism income.
Adolfo Mesquita Nunes liked his first experience
Although today is cloudy, the dive went very well. «The Algarve has the best spring and autumn diving in Europe», guarantees Luís Sá Couto. “A fortnight ago, we had a group of Irish people and the weather was not very good. But they dove. Divers from these countries are used to rough seas and the Algarve for them, even with less good weather, is always desirable».
«He was unlucky. With sun, we have more light under water. For a diving baptism, it's more interesting», said the businessman, turning to Adolfo Mesquita Nunes.
Before leaving for the sea and after the presentation of the Ocean Revival project, the Secretary of State was trained on land on the basic principles of diving. Luís Sá Couto explained everything exhaustively, not neglecting any aspect of security. "You can't block your breath, always breathe," he repeated several times. Otherwise, “there could be problems”.
"This is very encouraging," joked Mesquita Nunes.
At his side was Duarte Padinha, vice-president of Algarve Tourism and already with some experience, although he confessed that «I haven't dived for about six years». On board the boat, and already with his diving suits on, Pedro Caleja explained again, in detail, safety rules, details of how the equipment works and how to go into the water with the oxygen bottle on his back, how to put it on. the mask or use the regulator.
With Pedro and Paula already in the water, to help the newcomers, Adolfo Mesquita Nunes was the first to enter the water, it was 11:22, and immediately made the ok sign with his fingers. So far, so good.
Then followed Duarte Padinha, more at ease, and finally the photographer Virgílio Rodrigues, who ended up not being able to photograph the debut of the governor in the underwater world because the water was a little cloudy.
The dive lasted about half an hour and did not go deeper than three meters. On Subnauta's vessel, Desidério Silva had remained, who was by now impatient, watching the time pass, and remembering that in the afternoon there would still be a meeting between the Secretary of State and the trade and mayors, on the subject of Health and Wellness Tourism.
Back on board, Adolfo Mesquita Nunes guaranteed that he enjoyed "very much of this first experience" and said he was "convinced to return". And pointing to the sky, where the sun was peeking feebly through the clouds, he said: "It's an activity we can do, even when the weather isn't at its best." In other words, another weapon to reduce the seasonality of tourism in the Algarve. Or one more way to escape the crisis through underwater tourism.
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