A proposal by Elidérico Viegas, president of AHETA (the Algarve hotels and tourist resorts association) for the scrapping of regional tourism entities and the creation of two new organisations has been submitted to the Minister of Economy, Employment and Transport, Alvaro Santos Pereira.
The two new entities would comprise a private sector set-up with responsibility for private initiatives and solely dedicated to promoting the Algarve and the local businesses, and a public service dedicated to “the mainstreaming of tourism” and keeping track of all progress made.
Elidérico Viegas says that “each of these institutions will have a specific purpose” but they would collaborate to oversee the Algarve’s tourist industry.
He believes that with the current economic state of Portugal, tourism cannot depend entirely on the work of local business and public servants.
“In the Algarve, it is important to have a mechanism to ensure coordination and coherence of public intervention with the government,” said Elidérico Viegas.
President of the Algarve Tourism Board, António Pina, told the Algarve Resident: “I do not wish to make any comment related to the thoughts of the President of AHETA, Sr. Elidérico Viegas, regarding the ‘reorganisation of the Algarve Tourism Authority’ before the Secretary of State for Tourism makes an official and public statement.”
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