Six-luxury hotels – all of four or five stars – including various holiday villages and five new golf courses are to be built in Silves, the second biggest concelho in the Algarve. Isabel Soares, President of Silves Câmara, has revealed that some of the country’s leading businessmen will be behind the investments, which are set to begin being built next year. According to Soares, “some of them will already be up and running by 2006”.
The Pestana Group is backing one of the projects, the construction of a five-star hotel in the Vila Fria zone, near the city of Silves itself. Another consortium, including the Cavaco Brothers’ Group, has submitted plans to build two luxury hotels at Praia Grande, an area of outstanding natural beauty along the border between the Silves and Albufeira concelhos. Another business developer, Pereira Coutinho, is set to invest heavily in the Lameira zone of Silves, where two or three five-star hotels will be built.
Soares says the projects will create 10,000 new tourist beds and thousands of new jobs in what will be “one of the biggest investments carried out in the sector on a regional level”. She also stressed that the projects will be marked by “a preoccupation with quality”.
City turns green again:
According to Silves Câmara President, there are currently 116,000 trees waiting to be donated to local farmers who were affected by last summer’s devastating forest fires. Farmers interested in applying for trees are asked to fill in a form, which can be picked up at the câmara offices until the end of January.
