At least 70% of the hotels in the Algarve would close their doors during the winter, a number well above the normal. And, if Covid-19 had already been very penalizing for the Algarve hotel industry, the measures to combat it, namely the confinement in municipalities with the highest rate of infection, destroyed any hope that businessmen might still have of being able to keep their doors open in low season.
In recent weeks, more measures have been announced. muscled to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in Portugal, at a time when the number of new infections is higher than ever, deaths from this disease also and there are more and more people in hospitals.
And if these Government decisions seem to have had, until now, little influence on the statistics of the pandemic, they are already being felt, and well, in the hotels of the Algarve.
«I can already walk around inside the hotel without a mask. Do you know why? I'm the only one!”, joked João Soares, general director of the D. José Beach Hotel, in Quarteira, and representative in the Algarve of the Hotel Association of Portugal (AHP).
This outburst, made in a post on the personal Facebook profile of the Algarve businessman, it illustrates a distressing reality for a hotel that, in 50 years, has never had to close during the winter, but which is now «considering doing so».
After all, the occupancy rate of this hotel, in the current month of November, will have only one digit, when it is normally 87%.
"We started the month of November with 30 percent occupancy and, at the moment, we are at 6% occupancy," revealed João Soares to Sul Informação.
This last-minute descent was due to restrictions imposed by the Government.
«We had several groups and reserves in the national market, but, at the moment, with seven million Portuguese people confined and with restrictions in the municipalities where they live, it is impossible for them to move», explained the director of D. José.
And, although there is no measure specifically aimed at hotels, the known restrictions «do not help or encourage people to travel to the Algarve».
“We are considering closing the hotel for the first time in 50 years. What happens is that, with these measures announced separately, it becomes completely impossible to plan for the future», said João Soares.
According to the businessman, there were "many cancellations in the international market, because the markets were undergoing permanent changes, but we had hope and directed all our energies to the national market."
This led Algarve hoteliers to put on the table «long stays, for people to stay in the Algarve during the confinement period, with special offers for companies and other incentives, particularly in relation to parties».
«But the measures announced, some of which I have difficulty in understanding, ended up destroying all the planning that existed to see if we could limit the impacts of winter here in the Algarve», he considered.
To all this was added a local decision, by the Municipality of Loulé, to cancel several sports events, including the Quarteira International Triathlon.
«We had the Triathlon Cup, which would take place at the end of November, in which we programmed all our human resources and the entire structure to receive people. There were more than one hundred rooms occupied for several days, and some internships», said the hotelier from Algarve.
«For us, it is difficult to understand that federated teams cannot participate in an outdoor event, complying with all the safety and hygiene standards required by the General Health Department, complying with the Clean & Safe seal, in a region where there is no many cases,” he said.
For all this, «we are going into a very difficult period», believes João Soares.
This is the story of a businessman who only owns a hotel. But history repeats itself in large hotel groups.
“We are going to close more units. It is normal for us to close units in the winter period, but this year we will close more than usual», he told the Sul Informação Pedro Lopes, administrator of the Pestana Group for the Algarve.
For now, this hotel chain has not yet decided exactly how many and which units to close and will only «make that decision in December».
“The situation has been complicated. If there are no flights, or, when there are, the governments of the outbound markets tell people not to leave the country, it is clear that the Algarve is empty. Those who are in the Algarve are people who have a house here and people who come for long stays, for months. Now, the usual tourist, who spent a weekend or a week, there is very, very little», he framed.
This low demand leads to strong falls, which, at Grupo Pestana, are «from 60% to 70% in revenues, which, in the end, is what matters», in line with the average losses of the sector.
«And now, it will become more pronounced, in winter», warned Pedro Lopes.
As can be seen, first the pandemic and, more recently, government therapy to control it, affected all hoteliers, large and small.
«All the large groups will have most of the hotels closed: the Pestana Group, the Anantara/Tivoli, the Vila Galé. Some were already closed, but this year, for all the reasons and more, there will be more units to close», assures Elidérico Viegas, president of the Association of Hotels and Touristic Enterprises of the Algarve.
Anantara Vilamoura Algarve Resort, for example, will close in a few days.
As for the smaller hotels, there were some «that have already closed and others that may face the possibility of doing so in the near future, because there are no clients and the situation has been getting complicated».
AHETA has been announcing in recent weeks that more than 70% of hotels will be closed during the low tourist season, when, "traditionally, 50% were closed during the winter".
However, admitted to the Sul Informação Elidérico Viegas, the percentage of hotel units that will be closed is «a number that tends to increase».
As for AHP, «it had calculated that about 75% of the hotel business would close. But with these new measures, we believe that very few units will remain open», guarantees João Soares.
“The conditions don't allow it. If the rest of the country is completely confined, it is not possible for people to travel to the Algarve», he considered.
The AHP representative in the Algarve region therefore demands that the promised aid to the Algarve's economy arrive as soon as possible.
As the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister said, the Algarve needed a specific plan for the recovery of the economy, but it never arrived, despite having been announced by the Government.
“Companies are in extreme difficulties and many of them will either go to the lay off traditional or they will advance to collective redundancies, because they won't be able to stand it», believes the director of D. José Beach Hotel.
This will "generate a climate of insecurity and, above all, very serious social problems, in a region that depends almost exclusively on tourism."
Pedro Lopes, on the other hand, prefers to see the issue in a more comprehensive way and not stick to Algarve tourism.
“What is happening is that Portugal, in terms of support to companies, is one of the countries in Europe that is giving the least assistance, which is a shame”, said the administrator of the Pestana Group.
Still, guarantees the representative of this large hotel group, in his company there are no plans to reduce the staff.
“We will keep the troops. During the winter, let's do what we always do: we give vacations, days off. We also didn't hire practically anyone in the summer, so there won't be any disengagement, we'll stay the same as last year», assured Pedro Lopes.
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