Debt || In a dismal report this week, Público draws attention to the fall from grace and promised dizzy-heights of two Algarve congress centres.
The grandly-named arenas, within 10 minutes’ drive of each other, are now no more than “refuges for seagulls”, echoing, empty and testament to millions of euros of wasted money and hubris.
Lagoa’s Centro de Congressos do Algarve (also known as Pavilhão do Arade) is on the “brink of collapse”, writes the paper – actually owing €7 million of its €10 million debt to the failed BES bank.
Down the road, Portimão Arena is costing the massively-indebted local council €1.5 million a year and equally lacking in business.
Trying to manage the Centro de Congressos do Algarve, for example, has been a “constant headache”, tourism chief Desidério Silva tells Público, but there are plans on the table for a better future. The space could be leased to an events organisation promoting national and international fixtures, he explained – but even so, a two-year debt-amnesty will be needed.
The plans don’t help the Arade congress centre however, where these days staff is down to just one office worker and the doors are firmly shut.
It was meant to be a “springboard for the region’s economy, attracting business tourism”, writes Público, but following the ill-fated ALLGARVE campaign, all that has been left is debt and disillusion.
Photo: The Centro de Congressos do Arade enjoying better days
