ALBUFEIRA HAS been named on a ‘black list’ of cities which regularly run bullfighting events. The list has been drawn up by British animal rights organisation, The League Against Cruel Sports.
A further 50 areas in Portugal have been named on the list, which is going to be made public to tourists and the British media, in order to urge people to boycott these areas as holiday destinations.
The campaign, already hailed as “movement of the week” by British newspaper The Guardian, identified that Portugal, as well as dozens of Spanish, French and Latin American destinations need to encourage tourists not to attend these events.
At the moment, the campaign is being promoted online, but the British animal rights organisation is planning to take it to travel agencies, airports and sought after localities used by British tourists when planning a trip to the Algarve.
This campaign comes at a busy time of year, when many areas of the Algarve hold bullfights in temporary bullrings – areas which are not part of the list comprised by the British organisation.
A bullfight took place last week in Vilamoura, attended by numerous Portuguese public figures, as part of PortugalSummer, an initiative led by the government and the Tourist Institute, with the aim of promoting national tourism throughout the summer.
The ANIMAL association, a Portuguese activist group which has a base in Portimão, has been working in partnership with The League Against Cruel Sports on this campaign. They are exerting pressure on local câmaras, as well as national government to “boycott” the bullfighting industry as a tourist attraction, due to its declining credibility in the public eye.
The President of ANIMAL, Miguel Moutinho, said that the organisation is launching a series of initiatives in the next two weeks to “turn the Algarve into an anti-bullfighting area”.
The campaign will promote establishing contact with various tourist organisations all over the Algarve, advising visitors not to look for, or attend, bullfighting events.
According to Moutinho, he receives “dozens of complaints from foreign tourists all over Portugal” and despite flyers stating that the bull is not killed in the arena, “this does not mean these types of event are acceptable”. He furthered that the câmaras, who constantly promote this type of spectacle, “are going to have to learn that the city will lose tourists if they continue to promote the spilling of blood”.
There are permanent and temporary bullrings in numerous parts of the Algarve including Loulé, Lagos, Silves (Armação de Pêra), Lagoa and Tavira.
