Tourist entrepreneurs affected by the fire in Odemira are accounting for the damage and working to resume bookings in the units, the Secretary of State for Tourism, who visited the area affected by the fire, told Lusa today.
«At the moment, surveys are being carried out by the entities, together with the operators, to determine the losses and outline what we can do to relaunch tourism in these units», said Nuno Fazenda.
The Secretary of State for Tourism, Commerce and Services was speaking to Lusa on the sidelines of a visit to Odemira, where he traveled to listen to businessmen and local tourism development associations and understand the impact of the fires on the activity.
According to the official, there are units that have already resumed occupation, while in others work is still being carried out to remove the wreckage, while the damage caused by the fire, whose impact takes on various forms, is also being investigated.
According to Nuno Fazer, there are developments in which the surrounding landscape was affected, there are others that suffered material damage – at least one unit it was practically destroyed e others partially – and, also, the relative impact of the drops in demand that they had and may still have.
«One of the units I visited was evacuated on the days of greater intensity of the fire, but the next day the reservations resumed and is already occupied», he said, stressing that tourism in the municipality is working and with «arms open» to receive visitors. .
Asked by Lusa about possible support to be granted to the affected businessmen, the official said that this is the time to listen to them and assess the damage so that “the most appropriate instruments can be designed to respond to tourism in the municipality and region”.
As estimated on Thursday by the Casas Brancas association, which is accounting for the damage, close to 20 tourist accommodation in the municipality were affected, some with material damage, by the fire that broke out on Saturday.
«We have several [accommodations] on this stretch of the Alentejo coast and some of them were affected with material damage, as is the case of Monte da Choça, which belongs to the founder of Casas Brancas, who lost part of his accommodation and support infrastructures,» he said. to the Lusa agency, Mónica McGill, president of the Casas Brancas network.
Other units that escaped the violence of the flames were affected "by the departure of guests and some cancellations", he indicated.
The fire, which started on Saturday and was considered under control at 10:15 am on Wednesday, was still in the aftermath this morning due to “some hot spots”, which “still cause concern”, according to a Civil Protection source. .
According to the website of the National Authority for Emergency and Civil Protection (ANEPC), at 12:15 pm the fire mobilized 679 operators, supported by 232 vehicles and two air assets.
The rural fire in an area of bush and pine forest broke out in the Baiona area, in the parish of São Teotónio, municipality of Odemira, in the middle of the afternoon on Saturday and entered the Algarve municipalities of Monchique and Aljezur.
The burned area amounts to about 8.400 hectares, in a perimeter of 50 kilometers.
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