«There is a Gordian knot in air accessibility in Portugal» that affects Lisbon, but also the Algarve
The president of the Hotel Association of Portugal (AHP) considers that “there is a Gordian knot in air accessibility in Portugal” that affects Lisbon, but also other tourist regions, such as the Algarve.
For, argues Raúl Martins, «while the axle to Lisbon (because we know Lisbon is the axle from Portugal to the world), we have here a growth difficulty».
The theme of Air Accessibility will be precisely one of those that will be debated, in a panel dedicated to it, during the 32nd National Congress of Hotel and Tourism, organized by AHP, at Nau Salgados Palace, in Albufeira, from the 10th to the 12th of November.
In an interview with South Information, the president of the main national hotel association admitted that, in the main Portuguese tourist attractions, the impasse has been overcome through «alternative solutions». «We are back to have chances of operators operating directly to the Algarve and that is good, because they are not conditioned to axle from Lisbon. Routes with various companies have also been growing in Porto, in Madeira and the Azores we see announcements of new air connections every day”, he explained.
For Raúl Martins, this is “an obvious strategy” for airlines that “know that tourists to these areas and, the congested Lisbon airport as it is, decide to fly directly to airports in other regions. Somehow, this will make up for this impasse in the situation of the axle of Lisbon ».
«If things go well, we will only have a new airport in Lisbon, or axle, which would be the most suitable, three or four years from now». This means, in the opinion of the president of the AHP, that, however, «it is very difficult to increase the number of tourists and as tourist revenue for the country».
Only, defended Raúl Martins in his interview with South Information, «The regions of the Algarve, Porto, Madeira and the Azores are able and autonomous enough to create attractive conditions for companies to fly there directly». In fact, he stressed, “everyone has been doing work in this direction.”
And that, in the opinion of the hotelier and sector leader, “will be a very important path, three or four years needed, so that the regions outside of Lisbon are not dependent on this Gordian knot that has not yet been untied”.
«2022 is going to be a good year» of Tourism
The motto of the National Congress that AHP promotes in Albufeira is «Tourism has a future!». But what about the effects of the pandemic, what consequences did it have in that future?
Raúl Martins considers that Portugal, with the level of vaccination reached and with the measures adopted to control the pandemic, was «in an excellent position for a return to tourism to take place. We, in terms of vaccination, are the first in the world, and this is important in terms of security that people want to visit us».
Such a situation is “common that, first the inland areas and then the Algarve, Madeira and the Azores, then Porto and now Lisbon, gradually recovered a reasonable occupation. Today we can say that we will have an average occupancy of around 50% of what was in 2019, I am saying in all, the accumulated will not have yet, but in October it happened that way. This gives us the expectation and hope that the recovery has started”.
“Of course, we have a few mandatory months ahead of us: November, December, January and February are months when occupancy is normally lower.” But the president of AHP is optimistic and says he believes that “2022 will be a good and positive year.” “Obviously we won’t be at the 2019 level yet, but it’s going to be a good year.”
In fact, he added, in his interview to our newspaper, “it is with this expectation that we organize the congress, stating that tourism has a future.” Because, he lamented, “throughout this time of the pandemic, it seemed that tourism was an activity in danger of extinction.”
«But the human being is the main actor in tourism, it is to him that we dedicate our attention, and the human being, in the 21st century, likes to travel, likes to have new experiences and likes to socialize. And therefore, as the pandemic becomes more under control, we will have more activity”, highlights Raúl Martins.
Type and attitude of tourists has changed a little
And, after the pandemic, the fears it brought, the habits it changed, are the tourists looking to Portugal of the same type? Or has it also changed?
The president of the Hotel Association of Portugal admits that «we have several examples that recent tourists are different». In Madeira, for example, “it had, throughout this summer, the youngest tourists”.
According to Raúl Martins, what is happening is that «older tourists are still modest, they still have the right to travel, even if they are vaccinated, so there is a change in their profile here».
On the one hand, there is a change in the age profile, “since it is the younger people who are traveling more. Or they are traveling as they used to, but the older ones are not traveling. And, within these, as they are different, it means that, while seniors look for rest, rest and some sun, the younger ones look for activity, they look for new experiences».
And, fortunately, «that Portugal also has. We have placed, over these last years, a very diversified offer». There are «from fantastic walking routes, to bike paths outside the cities or possibilities of pure nature».
«Today, in Portugal, there are several offers of this type and we know that hotels in the interior had, during a pandemic, a demand higher than before. Therefore, we think that, as tourists are different and have a different profile, Portugal has offers to capture them and this has been happening and will continue to happen”, stressed the president of AHP.
With regard to the Algarve, Raúl Martins registers as «infrastructures» that were raised in the region to meet this new demand, «from walkways, footpaths along the coast, for example from Quinta do Lago to Faro, routes from adventure, routes of walking». And then there is golf, which is traditionally important to reduce seasonality and which, this year, has already proven its importance once again.
However, both in the Algarve region and in the neighboring Alentejo region, the hoteliers’ director also emphasizes the role played by wine tourism, as a way of attracting new tourists, even outside the high season and further inland. “There is a situation that can favor a so-called low season, which is the fact that people today do not want big mistakes and even flee from places or times where there is a lot of concentration”.
Who is Raúl Martins?
Raul Martins was born in Labrugeira, in Alenquer, 75 years ago, having developed his professional engineering and management activity at the construction companies Fernando Martins, SA, who developed, among others, the real estate project Encosta das Olaias, which won the Valmor award in 1982.
Since 1974, he has been a director of Altis, SA, having developed the projects for its Altis Suites, Altis Avenida, Altis Prime and Altis Belém Hotels, which includes the Feitoria Restaurant, awarded a Michelin star since 2012, and the Foz Residence development , without Port.
He took the Senior Management of Companies course at AESE.
He is currently chairman of the Board of Directors of ALTIS Hotels, has been connected for more than 40 years to the hotel business and since 2000 to associative life. He has been president of AHP – Associação da Hotelaria de Portugal since 2016, having previously held positions as chairman of the Supervisory Board and General Assembly of this association.
He was chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Lisbon Tourism Association, serves as vice-president of the CTP and is a member of the Committee of the Lisbon Tourism Development Fund, on behalf of AHP.
In 2018, he was distinguished by the Portuguese Government with the Gold Degree Medal of Tourist Merit, for his more than 40 years of connection to the sector, both as an achievement and in recognition of the associative work he has developed.