Saturday, January 22, 2005
... Nor Any Drop To Drink!
It's dry-as-a-bone in Algarve (and throughout Portugal), apparently.
Temperatures have been higher than the seasonal average (let's hear it for Global Warming!) and that means less water for consumption...
What does this mean? Well, if you're a holiday-maker, only there for a short time to enjoy yourself, probably not much. Even if you're in the tourist service industries, it's likely to be good news, short-term.
But, if you're in agriculture to make a living, things won't seem so rosy (or is that rosé?).
The farmers' confederation, whose acronym is, unhappily, CAP (shades of European agricultural subsidy excesses) claims that pasture land is already affected, and crops may soon follow. And, it seems, fruit trees will be thrown off-kilter too, and will flower too early.
Local environmentalists are keen to see measures put in place to conserve water use, so expect to be sharing baths and shower facilities with complete strangers this summer, if they have their way!
It is claimed that there is already a programme for efficient water usage in place, but it has not been implemented due to bureaucratic inefficiency. I, for one, refuse to believe this slur on our Algarvean civil servants!
Unfortunately, the prevalent attitude that I have encountered in Algarve is that water is, and always will be, plentiful. It will take a massive public re-education programme to change such views, and leaving it until now does smack of complacency or inefficiency (or both).
It looks like I'm not going to make it back for an Algarve break until March at the earliest, so I suppose that either I'll find that the beaches now give onto a sand-blown desert, or at least that I should have taken my own massive stocks of drinking water, and maybe even a pocket-sized reverse-osmosis machine for de-salinating sea water.
All I know is, that would require a heavy discount on my holiday tickets!
We'll see what happens. Watch this space...
Saturday, January 08, 2005
Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics...
Some interesting facts about Algarve tourism were published recently, and I was struck by the strange ways that statistics are treated in some quarters.
Overall, it seems, tourist numbers were down to their lowest levels since 1993. And this was despite the hosting of Euro 2004 soccer finals in Portugal and Algarve.
And that's my first departure from the official line... I think the numbers were down because of Euro 2004, not 'despite'. I tend to watch more TV soccer (football) than I'd like because my husband enjoys it, but neither he nor I would go anywhere near a stadium before or after a match was to be held because of the perceived likelihood of bad behaviour by a small number of 'fans'.
Multiply that effect for a major championship, add in the fact that some hooligans travel with the precise aim of causing trouble at such events, factor in some exaggerated claims for accommodation uptake (places saying they were full when they weren't) - and is it any wonder that people stayed away in droves?
An interesting fact I learned was that some 58% of those using Faro airport are Brits! I knew that a lot of us love Algarve, but wow! that's impressive. Another take on that figure, however, is that about 400,000 folk passing through Faro every year are headed for western Spain, so some tourist money escapes the region as soon as it has arrived. Great for Faro airport, of course, but bad news for Algarve's economy.
Apparently, golf and theme parks were both badly-hit sectors of Algarve's tourism industry, while casinos actually registered an increase in income. Moral? Tourists seem increasingly less keen about 'active' activities, preferring instead to spend their time in smoke-filled gambling dens... And we wonder why obesity is 'on the up'!
In order to end on a positive note, I should report that Senhor Hélder Martins, Algarve's tourism supremo, is optimistic. You may remember my earlier blog about the good senhor's enthusiasm for increasing Algarve's naturist facilities. My guess is that he sees a chance to offset the dearth of clothed tourists by attracting hordes of nude holiday-makers...
That's either bare-faced cheek or naked opportunism.
You decide...
Overall, it seems, tourist numbers were down to their lowest levels since 1993. And this was despite the hosting of Euro 2004 soccer finals in Portugal and Algarve.
And that's my first departure from the official line... I think the numbers were down because of Euro 2004, not 'despite'. I tend to watch more TV soccer (football) than I'd like because my husband enjoys it, but neither he nor I would go anywhere near a stadium before or after a match was to be held because of the perceived likelihood of bad behaviour by a small number of 'fans'.
Multiply that effect for a major championship, add in the fact that some hooligans travel with the precise aim of causing trouble at such events, factor in some exaggerated claims for accommodation uptake (places saying they were full when they weren't) - and is it any wonder that people stayed away in droves?
An interesting fact I learned was that some 58% of those using Faro airport are Brits! I knew that a lot of us love Algarve, but wow! that's impressive. Another take on that figure, however, is that about 400,000 folk passing through Faro every year are headed for western Spain, so some tourist money escapes the region as soon as it has arrived. Great for Faro airport, of course, but bad news for Algarve's economy.
Apparently, golf and theme parks were both badly-hit sectors of Algarve's tourism industry, while casinos actually registered an increase in income. Moral? Tourists seem increasingly less keen about 'active' activities, preferring instead to spend their time in smoke-filled gambling dens... And we wonder why obesity is 'on the up'!
In order to end on a positive note, I should report that Senhor Hélder Martins, Algarve's tourism supremo, is optimistic. You may remember my earlier blog about the good senhor's enthusiasm for increasing Algarve's naturist facilities. My guess is that he sees a chance to offset the dearth of clothed tourists by attracting hordes of nude holiday-makers...
That's either bare-faced cheek or naked opportunism.
You decide...
