Former Algarve tourism boss Hélder Martins is taking over the Quinta do Marco rural hotel in Tavira and will reopen it in 2016, after “substantial renovations”. The purchase of the hotel cost “around €350,000”, Martins has revealed, declining to elaborate further.
The business has been closed since last year. Located on a 16-hectare rural site in Santa Catarina da Fonte do Bispo, Quinta do Marco has 24 hotel rooms, as well as pools for adults and children, a spa, a massage room, a restaurant/bar and a meetings room.
Martins told the Resident: “I visited the hotel last year with my wife and fell in love with it. It’s very close to the coast but still far away enough that it is peaceful.”
He said that he would have purchased the hotel right away but was unable to due to “bureaucratic issues”.
If all goes according to plan, the revamped business should be up and running by February or March next year, Martins added.
In a press release, Martins had already stressed how the hotel boasts a “magnificent view over the Eastern Algarve coast which goes from Monte Gordo to Ilha do Farol” and how it will include a biological garden providing fresh produce for the restaurant.
Curiously, the announcement of Quinta do Marco’s reopening came shortly after it was revealed that the controversial €200 million Quinta da Ombria project in Loulé – once headed by Martins, as the project’s general manager – has finally received its ‘alvará’ (building licence).
By MICHAEL BRUXO [email protected]
