The building was the Portuguese pavilion at the 1929 exhibition, and enjoys an exceptional location in the city centre, on the corner of the Avenida El Cid and Avenida Portugal, just a few metres from the Plaza de España, and it would house a tourist office, a shop selling regional produce and a chamber of commerce between the two regions.

António Pina, president of the Algarve Tourism Board, confirmed that his organisation was interested but he thinks that, given the characteristics of the building, it would be appropriate to attract a range of business associations from the region to the project.

Aware of the problems that may still arise, Pina was cautious and gave no details as he regards these as premature given the state of negotiations. However, the president of the RTA said it was only those who don’t turn up for the match who are sure of losing.

Vítor Neto, president of the NERA, the Algarve Business Association and a former Secretary of State for Tourism, supports the initiative but with caution. He told the Algarve Observer that any new showcase was important but added that it was important to see if they had the financial, human and organisational capacity to venture into such a project.

He said that the Algarve-Andalusia relationship was a very unequal one, and it was important not to forget that Andalusia was the same size as the whole of Portugal, and that the Algarve had no critical mass in entrepreneurial terms; he pointed out that the number of Spanish people had increased but that they mainly visited regions to the north of Lisbon and not the Algarve.

He said that they needed to analyse the profile of Spanish people visiting Portugal, and asked what the purpose of opening an office in Seville would be. What is for Spanish people who go on holiday or for those who visit Portugal and the Algarve?

The president of NERA concluded that it was necessary to think carefully, and he said they were available for discussions and were positive but it should not be a political choice. What was needed was to know how much it would cost and who would pay, and to see if this fitted into the strategy of the Algarve.

This is something with which Elidérico Viegas, president of AHETA, the Algarve Hotel and Tourist Resort Association, is in complete agreement. He said that it would be a pity to lose the building, and added that it was possible that tourism was the sector that could make best use of it, but that it had to be a fully fledged project.

He said that it could be of strategic interest for the region if it was well done, but added that it had to be done in association and true partnership with the private sector; it should not be a situation in which the money is put up privately but it is the public sector that is in charge.

One of the questions to be resolved in the project for reusing the building as proposed by the RTA is the concession agreement for the building which is the property of the Ayuntamento de Sevilla, which specifies that it should be used for “diplomatic purposes”, and this now needs to be reformulated after it was renewed for a further 75 years in 2004.

The department of the Secretary of State for the Communities confirmed to the Algarve Observer that the consular network in Spain was to be remodelled by the end of the year, and that the plan was for the diplomatic representation to continue as a consular office, which means that the presence of a consul would no longer be necessary.

As justification for the remodelling, the government department responsible referred to the small number of consular acts that are carried out in Seville, by an organisation consisting of a consul and two members of staff, according to a study carried out by the Portuguese government.

As regards the project supported by the RTA, the same source said they knew nothing about it officially, but that any decision would have to bear in mind the interests of the government and whether these should be maintained through diplomatic representation or a space for the promotion of the economy, culture and tourism.

Spanish market growing fast

Meanwhile statistics show that the growth in the number of Spanish tourists visiting the Algarve was 17.5% in the last six months, with it becoming the market that grew most in this period, ahead of the British market in terms of growth.

At present the Spanish market represents about 10% of all visitors, with the British accounting for 37% and the domestic market 22%.

The Portuguese Tourist Institute gives figures of about 250,000 Spanish tourists visiting the Algarve in 2006.

source: the algarve observer