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Portugal: on track for success

Catherine Deshayes

With Portugal's visitor numbers falling, can the completion of the brand new international motor racing circuit in the Algarve make the country  into a year round destination and boost tourism and property prices? TheMoveChannel.com finds out...

The Algarve in Portugal has long been a tourist hotspot, with more than five million visitors form across the globe making the pilgrimage to the sun, sand and sea each year. The westernmost country of Europe, Portugal is bordered by Spain to the north and east and by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south.

Portugal is also a popular with those seeking holiday homes or investment properties. Since 1993, when revised planning regulations were introduced to Portugal's property market to ensure that new developments fitted with their surroundings, property prices in the country have risen at around 15-20 per cent per annum.

Despite being more expensive than some emerging European destinations and generally higher than Spain due to higher land costs, Portugal's property market is still one of the most popular with British buyers.

The Algarve still reigns supreme as the top British choice of destination in Portugal, but the Silver Coast has seen a rise in popularity in recent years, and places such as Alentejo and Costa Verde are now on the property buyer's map.

Since joining the European Union in 1986, Portugal was in the group of the first 11 countries to get the Euro in 1999 and its economy improved as a result. However, in the last few months, prices and tourist numbers have been falling as Portugal succumbs to the global economic woes.

Locals, many of whom rely heavily on the tourist trade for their livelihood, hope that the completion of the new motor racing circuit in the Algarve may help to boost the declining visitor numbers and falling property prices. 

The brand new Autodromo Internacional do Algarve, or Algarve International Motor Racing Circuit, in Portimao on Portugal's southern coast, is expected to lure in an extra million visitors each year. It lies 40 minutes away from the international airport at Faro with a direct connection by motorway, making it easy for visitors to access the new attraction.

The track will have 64 different configurations, with the longest being 2.91 miles long. It will also have a system for simulating rain which will allow for different amounts of water on the tarmac, plus an international standard kart facility, a technology park and the Algarve Race Resort. There will also be a sports complex which will feature a sports clinic, a gym and a swimming pool, squash courts and a football field. The spectator stands for the track will hold up to 55,000 people.

Portugal hasn't hosted a Formula One race since for 11 years, when the last Estoril race was held, but the new track will change all that. It will host a stage of the World Superbikes Championship on November 2nd this year, and is hoping to host a Formula 1 Grand Prix in the near future, which will push the area further onto the international stage and attract many more visitors.

Mayor of Portimao, Manuel da Luz, says that the new circuit is an attempt to fight the seasonality of the region, and hopes that it will bring people to the Algarve all year round and make it a landmark in Europe and across the globe.

The new track will undoubtedly inject new life into the area, with the creation of more than 1,500 jobs, and encourage visitors who like their holidays a little faster paced than the usual Portugal cocktail of sun, sea and sand.

Picture by dwstucke