Rapidly becoming a new reference when it comes to Algarve holiday destinations, the fishing town of Olhão has broken one of the region’s hotel records for August.
It saw the largest rise in what is termed “hotel occupation” – meaning more and more tourists are falling for Olhão’s eclectic charms.
Says AHETA – the association for hotels and tourist complexes – 4.1% more holidaymakers chose Olhão this year than in 2016.
On the last stretch of a nailbiting campaign for re-election next month Mayor António Pina has been quoted as saying: “We are very satisfied with these numbers as they reflect the path followed by this executive in terms of placing Olhão on the route for international tourism of quality, as opposed to tourism for the masses.
“Even so, we’re delighted to see this increase for the peak holiday month”.
On a regional level, AHETA reports that hotel occupation rose by 2.2%, with the average hotel occupation for August hitting 93.9%.
This has actually shown almost no change from 2016, thus Olhão’s ‘record’ is all the more remarkable.
Going deeper into the figures, AHETA stresses once again the decline of the British market, blamed in the fall in the value of the pound against the euro.
2o17’s summer season has seen a 16.3% decline in the number of holidaying Brits, though numbers otherwise are up by 10%, with 4.3% more Germans, and more Polish, French, Swedish, Belgian, Danish and Italian visitors than ever before.
