The Algarve is going to invest heavily in structuring the tourist niche of cyclists and hiking and wants to have an offer prepared for next winter, to combat seasonality.
A broad group of partners, including public and private entities, took over today, Thursday, in Faro, the commitment to boost the Development Plan Cycling & Walking Algarve 2016/19, to liven up the region in the months outside the high season.
The central idea of this plan is to organize what already exists, create a salable product and publicize it, so that this is a product that effectively contributes to combating seasonality. The fact is that, despite the existence of infrastructures, some of which are «world-class, like the Rota Vicentina», and «a huge potential», the world still doesn't know.
This was the conclusion of the study that gave rise to the plan now presented, commissioned by ANA Aeroportos de Portugal to TDI – Tourism Development International. International consultants Peter Mac Nulty and James Chilton were at the headquarters of the Algarve Tourism Region (RTA), to present the results of the survey they have carried out, since September 2015, on the region's potential for this type of tourism.
And they concluded that, despite the Algarve having ideal conditions to sell this tourist offer, there is a lot to do to become a player, namely in the most relevant outbound markets, including Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France and neighboring Spain.
What is needed is to structure the offer, create synergies between the actors on the ground and adopt a strong joint communication strategy, in which a good website will be essential, not only informative but also interactive, where it is possible, for example, to make reservations and planning a trip, before leaving home, defended international experts.
This is what the many partners that gathered around this project, at local but also central level – Turismo de Portugal and the Secretary of State for Tourism – want to do. According to Filipe Silva, representative of Turismo de Portugal, who coordinates this plan, the idea is to already have a structured offer, which can be sold, «in the winter of 2016/17».
For this to be possible, it is necessary, from the outset, "a priority intervention in the four anchor routes", the Rota Vicentina, the Via Algarviana, the Guadiana Route and the Ecovia do Litoral, not only for the maintenance and improvement of the routes, but also in placing “integrated signage, in harmony with European standards”.
The Algarve Chambers, through AMAL, will carry out this work, a basic condition to be able to offer the product, out of doors. AMAL, Turismo de Portugal, Associação Turismo do Algarve and RTA are the four main vectors of this strategy, which is, even so, more comprehensive, and includes more than a dozen entities.
This plan, stressed the Secretary of State for Tourism Ana Mendes Godinho, will have to go beyond "a mere protocol". "I don't believe in agreements that don't come out of the paper," he said. Something he's confident won't happen in this case.
«In this plan, 35 very concrete actions are contemplated, with a budget and timings well defined associates. I'll go after the project coordinator every day, to see what's happening», assured Ana Mendes Godinho.
On the other hand, he welcomed the initiative of ANA Aeroportos, which led to this process. According to Rui Ribeiro, representative of this company, the managing entity of Airports in Portugal felt that it was time to be proactive, in the search for solutions to combat seasonality.
«The traffic at the Airport of Faro, in January, it is six times lower than that recorded in July and August», he illustrated. That is why they commissioned this study, in association with Turismo de Portugal, RTA and ATA. It was from this joint work that the Development Plan was born Cycling & Walking Algarve 2016/19.
At first, the main effort will have to be developed by the local authorities, since the valorization and standardization of the product will have to be done, before moving on to the dissemination and sale part.
«The Chambers, coordinated by AMAL, play a fundamental role here. In practice, we have been working for months on this protocol and on the division of labor, to transform the Algarve into a real region that will be attractive throughout the year», according to AMAL president Jorge Botelho.
«What we are going to do is recover the paths, put them in conditions to be referenced and salable abroad, in the issuing markets. And we are going to deal with signage and work in other dimensions of this project, such as the website, The dots Wi-Fi, maps and also working with communities to create reference points,” he added. All this will have to be done “quickly, by the end of summer”.
From here, you can move on to promotional material, namely the website. "To website to be done, it is necessary, above all, to know what is on the ground. As soon as this becomes a reality, we will work with Turismo de Portugal, in order to sell it, not like a pig in a poke, but with concrete offers», said, for his part, the president of RTA Desidério Silva.
The head of the Algarve Tourism remembers that this is a «three-year process», so, at the end of the summer, it should not be fully structured yet. «This is an important project to position these two products, as a consistent offer, in the region. This also comes as a result of several actions that we have been promoting, in relation to cycling and walking. I myself have assumed many times that the region needs to be dynamized between October and May and these products play an important role», he concluded.
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