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Aljezur Already Has 700 Local Accommodation Units, But Hotels Are Also Coming

25 August 2018

Tourism is growing in the county, but it is not about large investments.

Aljezur already has “700 local accommodation units registered in the county” revealed José Gonçalves, mayor of the county on the Costa Vicentina, in an interview with Sul Informação.

However, in a municipality where tourism has grown, especially in niches linked to nature and surfing, hotel investment is also moving ahead, in both rural tourism and the construction of two new hotels.

“In the old part of the village of Aljezur, a lot has been acquired and renovated due to local accommodations. This brings us a new challenge, which is beginning to be a problem: the difficulty in finding housing for permanent homes, “explained the mayor.

As far as rural tourism is concerned, “some units are going to be built.” However, the biggest investment will be made in the hotel sector. “A 22-room hotel at the Perdigão site was recently approved,” using ” foreign investment,” at the same time as the project for “another hotel, south of Arrifana, has also been unblocked,” Mayor Gonçalves stated.

The latter project concerns plans for a 50-room hotel, resulting from Portuguese investment. The project ‘had been halted for more than a year but has just been unblocked by the ICNF (Forest and Nature Conservation Institute).”

“It’s a different project, not just a single building, but a complex of small houses. It is a project in which I have great faith,” he said.

The City Council is also developing projects that aimed to upgrade and diversify the region’s offerings for tourists visiting the county. “We have submitted applications to CRESC Algarve 2020 to develop two projects to improve the old town centre and also to create a newly themed visit to the village of Odeceixe, involving the cultural as well as environmental aspects.”

Mayor Gonçalves noted that “this movement of the Rota Vicentina and Via Algarviana is bearing very interesting fruit. Moreover, there is also surfing, which also attracts visitors during the winter, especially young people, who enjoy these stops. It is very important for our economy.”

One of the objectives of the municipality is also to incentivise “small businesses to set up in the historic zone, dynamising the region. The thematic visits have already been created, and there are more people visiting this area of ​​the village, now it is we need businesses to take advantage of it.”

Another project that the Aljezur city council is working on has to do with a new emerging niche for tourism in the area, mountain biking. A Sports Nature Centre will be created next to the village’s sports pavilion. In fact, the mayor explained, the centre is the result of the “adaptation of an existing space” and will include new mountain biking circuits and a repair shop.

In Pontal da Carrapateira, one of the most visited places in the Aljezuran coast, the Polis Program is in the final phase of the installation of an Interpretative Centre, from which “people are then taken to the Museum of the Land and Sea in the village of Carrapateira, in the interior. There will be a whole circuit to walk, especially on foot.

All these “are small investments, but very important for our scale, because they consolidate our offering,” the mayor of Aljezur concluded.

Original Story: Sul Informação – Elisabete Rodrigues

Photo: Nelson Inácio

Translation: Richard Turner