Nowadays, tourism is one of the sectors that most contributes to the Algarve economy, but it is not necessary to back down to the back to remember the times when the Algarve was a region that looked ‘forgotten on the map’. There were no tourists, the visits of government members were also scarce, but today everything changed and the Algarve is a much spoken ‘paradise’ in Portugal and abroad and the Spaniards confirm the arrival of “barefoot luxury” to the region.
The year 1965 came to change the position of the Algarve in the country and in the world. On July 11 of that year, Faro Airport was inaugurated. The inauguration was led by the then President of the Republic, Américo Thomaz and “it is said that, after the airport inauguration, the English who went to Luz beach were so many that ran the flag.”
These last words are from José Manuel Simões, director of the Institute of Geography and Spatial Planning of the University of Lisbon, in statements to News Magazine. The Algarve Airport opened the region’s doors for tourists of various nationalities, but above all English, and what is known is that Mount Gordo, lakes and Luz Beach were then the British preferential destinations.
Related:
Currently, the English continues to do tourism in the Algarve, however, over the years tourism itself has changed and even the so -called “luxury tourism” has adapted to the new times. According to El País journalist Karelia Vázquez, she has arrived at Algarve the “barefoot luxury”. The journalist points out that, although the luxury remains “exclusive” and “increasingly expensive”, “loses layers and frees itself from protocols and codes”.
Karelia Vázquez says that people who today seek luxury when traveling also seek “freedom as a relaxation of rules and a desire to enjoy good through small and real things.” There are no rules related to the way of dressing to go to dinner and tourists are starting to prefer the possibility of entering a slipper restaurant and their feet full of sand, preferably to order a market fish, served by the fisherman himself.
There is an Algarve hotel that serves as an example of “barefoot luxury”
The article by highlights Vilalara Grand Hotel Algarve, located next to Gaivotas Beach, in Porches, as an example of “barefoot luxury” in Portugal. “It’s funny if anyone likes to imagine stories of the seventy years, but their concept is installed in the welfare of the 21st century, fully linked to the expectations of that traveler who wants all the comforts of luxury, but none of his rigid and outdated precepts,” reads in the article.
It is that in this hotel unit in the Algarve you can order a green wine and visit the vine where it is produced and can also make a picnic “without ceremonies”, by the sea.
Also read:
