Portimão’s Hotel and Tourism School is to be moved from its current building in Pedra Mourinha to the town’s old prison near the municipal football stadium.
The plan was announced by Secretary of State for Tourism at a recent parliamentary hearing and is under the auspices of Turismo de Portugal, according to national tabloid Correio da Manhã.
The news was well-received by a “very happy” mayoress Isilda Gomes.
She told CM about the “poor conditions” of the current school, which is not only “rundown” but “too small for the amount of students and courses”.
The old prison is also rundown, but tourism authorities believe it has better conditions to home the school as long as it undergoes renovations. It is also located closer to the centre of town, as opposed to the Pedra Mourinha school which is almost on the outskirts of Portimão.
How much the renovations will cost and when the move is planned to take place are details tourism bosses are not revealing.
Portimão’s tourism school offers several courses, such as hotel management, cooking and waiter training. It is equipped with ten classrooms, a library, and a snack-bar for students.
The school attracts students from all over the Algarve and the Alentejo.
As Gomes pointed out: “To have sustainable tourism, we have to have qualified human resources.
