From June 6, 2018, the Algarve will have a direct air route, operated by the company Volotea, which will connect Faro to Verona (Italy). This will be the only direct link between the region and that country, which makes “this a strategic action”.
There has been a “growth trend in the tourist indicators of the Italian market in the region, both in terms of visitors but also in terms of residential tourism”, explains the Associação Turismo do Algarve (ATA).
This new route will have a weekly frequency, from June to September, with a capacity to offer 5400 seats.
«Italy is a market that has shown interesting growth figures in recent years – in 2016 there were nearly 108 thousand overnight stays by Italian tourists in the Algarve –, which is why we consider this a market of strategic importance for the region». explains Dora Coelho, executive director of ATA, the agency responsible for promoting tourism in the region to foreign markets and one of the entities that contributed to the realization of this operation.
After the British, the Nordic and the French, «there has been recently a significant increase in Italian tourists who are choosing the Algarve as a residential tourism destination, settling in the region to live for part of the year». says the ATA.
«The creation of a direct air connection to the Algarve will certainly have an influence on the growth of this trend», believes Dora Coelho.
The Italian market already had a very significant relevance for this destination during the 90's, a period during which the Algarve received around 20 thousand passengers a year from Italy. However, this operation was interrupted, so the announcement of this new route represents, in the words of Dora Coelho, «a stimulating challenge for the region with a view to regaining this market».
According to the company Volotea, the Algarve is a destination of «great fascination and appeal tourism', which is why this new investment is justified.
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