Algarve hoteliers expect to earn another 6% by the end of summer when 2024, betting on the upper middle class, admitting that there are Portuguese to prefer other cheaper countries to go vacation, they told Lusa responsible from the sector and Aheta President Hélder Martins.
“The Algarve is not in a competition for low prices. It is in a competition for high average prices,” he told Lusa Hélder Martins, president of the Algarve Hotel and Tourism Enterprises Association (Aheta).
The leader of the largest regional hotel association indicated that, in the first half of the year, the revenue and occupation in the units of members of the association increased by about 3% over the previous year and expects that until the end of summer will grow between 5 and 6%.
Reservations for summer this year are at a higher level of 2024 at the same time, which is this trajectory, according to Helder Martins, the result of the attractiveness of the Algarve, achieved with the requalification of the annually hotel units.
The president of the statement does not know the number of Portuguese who will go to the Algarve, nor will there be an increase or decrease, only having these numbers at the end of each month.
“[Certo é que] I can’t do business with only the Portuguese, ”says Helder Martins, adding that,“ if the Portuguese do not have a scholarship to come to the Algarve and other countries are cheaper, it will be the competition law that will work ”.
This hotel manager admits that at the beginning of the year prices in the sector had increased about 5% due to the growth of production costs, namely salaries.
On the other hand, the director of Hotel D. José, in Quarteira, João Soares, finds it “premature” to say that there will be fewer Portuguese to spend the summer holidays in the Algarve this year.
“There has not been a decrease in Portuguese customers so far and I think this will not happen when you take the balance in late August,” said João Soares, adding that “even if it happens, it will not be a significant variation.”
In the hotel unit that drives, this manager indicates that business in the first half of this year were higher than 2024, without major changes in tourist nationalities.
“There has been no decrease in Portuguese, now there is a tendency for Portuguese to travel abroad, which has nothing to do with prices,” says João Soares.
The hotel director confirms the increase in consumer prices “that do not reach both digits”, having the production costs increased even more, says.
João Soares considers that it is easier to find employees to work at the hotel, but complained about the lack of vocational training of these workers.
“I have between seven and eight people working at the bar instead of just five due to their little qualification,” he said.
Also read:
