Summer in the Algarve had a sort of extension into October and November, with many hotels registering occupancy rates "above than usual for this time of year" and planes full of passengers arriving at the airport in Faro. The "blame" of this good performance is the golf, which has numbers above 2019, and the British, who returned in force to the region during the half term, a UK school holiday.
From the Algarve Tourism Region, to hoteliers, through agents in the golf sector, the opinion is unanimous: the performance of the Algarve, in this final stretch of the year, has been frankly good and is working as an oxygen balloon for the tourism companies, still looking to recover from the consequences of the pandemic.
To help, there are two highly attractive events this weekend: the MotoGP at the Autódromo do Algarve and the Portugal Masters in golf, in Vilamoura. All together, it is enough to give hope to tourist agents that they will have a pillow to cross the “desert” of the approaching winter, until the expected recovery, as of the 2nd quarter of 2022.
For now, it's still too early to talk about recovery, even because, although there are areas in the Algarve working better than they usually do, at this time of year, at regional level, the average occupancy per room is still below that seen in 2019, in which the month of October concerns.
Second revealed to Sul Informação João Soares, general director of Dom José Beach Hotel, Quarteira, and representative of the Hotel Association of Portugal (AHP) in the Algarve, «everyone is above October last year, but about 20% below October 2019 , if we analyze the entire region».
Even without reaching the pre-pandemic numbers, the positive performance seen in October, which is expected to continue into November, “is a balloon of oxygen. Things are going very well, stable and customers are enjoying the destination».
The most recent data from another business association, AHETA, point in the same direction.
"The overall average occupancy rate/room was 60,5%, 15,5% below the value recorded in 2019. Compared to 2020, the average occupancy rose by 31,2%", revealed, this Thursday, the Associação dos Algarve Hotels and Tourist Resorts.
“We are having a good month of October, it is going well. There have been a lot of last minute bookings, a lot of British market. The weather has helped. But there are still rooms (laughs)», summarized João Soares.
Still with regard to numbers, João Fernandes, president of RTA, also advanced some.
"The most recent data from INE reveal that in September the overnight stays of the Portuguese exceeded the 2019 cluster and represented 33,5% of overnight stays in hotels classified between January and September", he said.
In October, «between the 14th and the 28th, they were handled at the airport of Faro over 173 passengers, 70% from the UK. The weekend of 23 and 24 October, with 215 arrivals, was the one with the most passengers handled since January 2020».
“This is a clearly good result, given the context. But it is also worth remembering that from January to September we had less than half of the overnight stays than in the same period in 2019», added João Fernandes.
To obtain these results, «golf has helped a lot».
«According to the information I have, the fields are full. We also had the British kids' vacation now, the so-called half term, which ended up helping the hotels to have very high occupancy rates», said João Soares.
The president of RTA reinforced that “from the 2nd fortnight of September, the golf season begins. There were three booking seasons that were concentrated from September 15th onwards. In October, golfers were joined by the half term, with many British families coming to the Algarve.
“Golf has had amazing results in the last two months, in September and October, and continues to have them in November. In this way, the hotel industry is having higher occupancy rates, largely because of golf», believes João Paulo Sousa, vice-president of the Association of Golf Managers of Portugal and director of Benamor Golf, in Conceição de Tavira.
«From the 15th of September and in the following months is the golf high season. With the appeasement of the pandemic situation, allied to the fact that vaccination in Portugal has already reached 85% of the population, levels of trust were created that allowed this to happen», he said, in statements to the Sul Informação.
Furthermore, «the Algarve golf destination is very prestigious and people were eager to play again, to travel again. many of them are repeaters, the Algarve has a large number of golfers who come to their destination again and again, and these showed up right away».
“We have a substantial number of long-term tourists, who have gone a year and a half without coming here and returned as soon as they could. Mainly the Nordic market, at this stage they have all returned and are already as in 2019 or even with more people to come», revealed João Paulo Sousa.
Right now, «demand has grown and is even higher than in the same period of 2019. Obviously, with more players, there is also more volume of rounds. This season is being positive for the golf courses and for all tourism in the Algarve».
Carlos Ferreira, founder and manager of Tee Times Golf Agency, one of the main golf agencies in the country, based in Vilamoura, explained to our newspaper that this increase was felt mainly in October, when the increase, compared to 2019, « was about 20%'.
In September, the numbers "were more or less equal" to those recorded in this month of the last year without the pandemic.
«For now, November is also going very well and I hope it stays that way», he wished.
The businessman does not hide that the return of golf in force is being «a breath of fresh air for the business part, not only for the agencies, but also for the courses and for the hotel industry».
“There have been reservations, also for next year, later on. We are still somewhat afraid, but trying to forget the past and pedal towards the future», he said.
And if things were already going well, this weekend «we have two great reasons to visit the region: the MotoGP in Portimão, which will have, for the first time, public, and the Portugal Masters in Golf. For this reason, there are some units that usually close at this time, which this year have remained open», stressed João Fernandes, from RTA.
«One feels that there is a lot of confidence in traveling to the Algarve, which is not the case in relation to competing destinations. We've also been treated to good weather, taking the rain from the weekend. I estimate that this good demand will last until the end of November», said the same person in charge.
In the medium term, expectations are also high, albeit with a good dose of realism.
“I think that recovery can only be expected from next year. I believe that what is currently happening is that people who would have liked to come to the region for holidays in the first quarter of the year are now coming here», illustrated hotelier João Soares.
After all, everything depends on how the winter will be, «but there are already many reservations for April and May and we will feel the recovery at that time».
From then on, and if the pandemic situation does not prevent it, João Soares is convinced that “there will be a very high demand. In the first and second quarters of next year we will already have a lot of customers, if things stay that way – and I believe so».
The president of the RTA also sees an increasingly bright light at the end of the tunnel. “There is a progressive recovery. We hope that from March onwards it will be in line with a normal year. But everything will always depend on the evolution of the pandemic”.
In golf, «the prospects for next year are good», since «the intentions to come are still consistent, also in 2022», concluded João Paulo Sousa.
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