Dear Editor,
Great reading this week, campers messing up the environment, Portugal low tourism expected, we are having a real estate fair (wow) and are now teaching kids to speak English at the rate of 135 minutes a week, 2.2 hours or around half an hour a day (wow again).
When is Portugal going to wake up, someone somewhere must have vision that extends beyond the end of his/her nose as Portugal is sat on a goldmine and, for some reason, just cannot see it.
Maybe corruption, drugs and sex are more lucrative in their minds, but the sooner they get their act into gear, the sooner two million people who left the UK last year for new shores worldwide will start looking at Portugal.
Imagine, two million mortgages, two million pensions, two million villas sold and two million bank accounts here in Portugal … all problems solved.
But until outlooks are widened and the Portuguese take a more aggressive attitude to selling what they have, I am afraid progress will be mighty slow.
So, we’re having a real estate show in Albufeira, great news but Albufeira Pressy Desidério Silva should be looking a little bit further afield and going out to the potential clients in THEIR home countries. Why is it Portugal is seldom represented at property exhibitions abroad?
The question could be answered by the fact that the Portuguese are poor at speaking English and with just 2.2 hours a week of English language lessons taught in schools they always will be.
Let’s not argue here as, if you guys want to deal in the UK, you’ll need to talk on our territory in our language. Extend the 2.2 to 10.2, the kids will learn five times faster and they are your future, you are not, you are the present and it’s stagnating because of you.
Each year, literally thousands of motorhomes arrive here in Portugal. Does the government realise that if they decree it’s illegal to camp anyway save a registered site (same for tents), everyone of those holidaymakers is incoming revenue. All it needs is some forward thinking Câmara to open up with some land for overnight stopovers with water, power and a loo.
H Davidson,
By email
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