The Municipality of São Brás de Alportel today issued a vote of condolence for the death of André Jordan, who He died on February 8th, aged 90.
The municipality reinforces that this is a tribute «to an unavoidable personality, considered the “father of tourism” and an unavoidable figure in the Algarve region, not only for his entrepreneurship, but also for his example of humanity and resilience. A man from the world who, through his hand, the Algarve had the blessing of welcoming ».
André Jordan was born in 1933, in the city of Lviv, territory of current Ukraine. Due to the Nazi invasion, he went with his family to Brazil in 1939, having previously passed through Portugal where he left a valuable legacy of humanism and entrepreneurship.
At a professional level, he was a journalist for the Brazilian press, later performing executive roles in his father's real estate companies, one of the pioneers of the sector in Rio de Janeiro.
He lived and worked in various places such as Buenos Aires, New York, Paris, London and the south of Spain.
In 1970, he came to Portugal. It is in the municipality of Loulé, which leaves its eternal mark. He was responsible for creating Quinta do Lago from the old Quinta dos Descabedos. In 1995, he took on a new challenge: he acquired the company that owned Vilamoura, recovered the resort founded in the 60s, developed the Vilamoura XXI project, built new golf courses, rehabilitated old ones and created a calendar of highly successful events, elevating Vilamoura, as intended.
In 2005, he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Infante D. Henrique, by the President of the Republic Jorge Sampaio, in 2014, he was considered one of the 12 most influential personalities in tourism worldwide, in 2023 he received the decoration with the Grand Cross of the Order of Commercial Merit, by the President of the Republic Professor Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
He was also awarded an Honorary Doctorate by ISCTE – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa and the University of Algarve.
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