Networking Breakfast - Evolution of tourism in the Algarve
With Pedro Lopes, administrator of the Pestana Group.
We were in the conversation, on the 19th of November, with Pedro Lopes, administrator of Grupo Pestana and member of the Advisory Board of StartUp Portimão.
An approach was made to the main metrics of tourism in the Algarve for the year 2020, namely the 38.4% decrease in RevPAR (Revenue per Available Room, income per available room), while ADR (average daily rate, average paid per room) occupied) only decreased by 3.2% compared to the same period of the previous year.
Some curious points about the year 2020 were that bookings through online operators dropped a lot, however the amount of direct bookings (directly at the hotel units or through the website itself) remained. Forecasts for 2021 remain the same as in 2020, as air traffic has decreased by 80% this year and next year it is expected that only half of the planes will be operating. Note that most tourists arrive in the region by plane.
In response to the participants, in relation to human resources, Pedro Lopes said that Grupo Pestana will not terminate employment contracts but will also not hire and that, whenever possible, they have allocated employees to other tasks. As for the seasonality of tourism in the Algarve, typically in the months of June to September the hotel units are occupied, the months of October and November are typically for business meetings and sporting events, and that December and January the tourist promotion of the region has not produced results.
