André Gomes, transforming tourism in the Algarve

For six decades, the Algarve, mainland Portugal’s southernmost region, has been a tourism destination that has gone from success to success. Arguably, this story began in 1965 with the opening of Faro Airport, making the remote and (then) inexpensive Southern European region suddenly accessible as a tourism destination.

Tourists from cooler and more northerly European countries began to arrive en masse, attracted by the Algarve’s stunning, uncrowded beaches, a sunny climate, and, for a wealthier clientele, the region’s soon-to-be-famed golf courses. Many of these tourists returned year after year, some even decided to stay for good.

In 2025, Faro Airport for the first time exceeded the 10-million arrivals landmark, with an impressive total of 10.4 million. The Algarve’s beaches have remained undeniably popular, with Praia de Monte Clérigo winning the 2026 European Best Beach award, while golf courses continue to be at the top of their swing, with Quinta do Lago recognised as Europe’s Best Golf Venue at the 2025 World Golf Awards.

In the recovery years following the Covid pandemic, the Algarve began to develop a new tourism model, based on a dual realisation: that the region could offer visitors much more than its beach, sun and golf classics, and that it needed to address over-dependency on the summer season which had become a structural limitation to growth.

In mid-June, The Resident spoke to André Gomes, Algarve Tourism Board (RTA) President, about the new tourism strategy he is rolling out. This strategy privileges revenue over volume and aims to tilt Algarve tourism towards premium and luxury, to attract visitors with deeper pockets. “Our aim is to host higher value tourism,” Gomes told us.

“Seasonality is the main challenge for the region over the next few years: we need to grow more outside the high season during which we are now almost full. We must show that the Algarve is an all-year-round destination. This will benefit businesses, their employees, residents and the entire regional economy.”

The strategy is beginning to work: the Algarve ended 2025 with the lowest rate of seasonality ever, recording double digit growth between 2024 and 2025 in several lower season months.

A diverse offer

André Gomes is not turning his back on the sunny beaches and golf, “the two products for which we have the most international recognition”, but he is intent on spreading the Algarve’s tourism bets.

“Today we have a very diversified offer which includes nature tourism, culture, sailing and yachting, gastronomy (there are nine Michelin stars across the region) and an emerging wine tourism scene, offers which are complementary to beaches and golf, and which, with our enviable climate, allow the region to host tourism throughout the year. In addition to our magnificent coastline, we have an amazing interior, rich in culture, traditions and authenticity.”

New markets

Gomes has been working on diversifying visitor markets. “We have a historical relationship with markets such as the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Ireland and Germany, with direct flights for many years now. We are currently diversifying to include additional European markets, such as Northern Europe, and equally continental markets such as the United States and Canada, with not only direct flights to Faro, but also indirect flights to the islands of Madeira and the Azores.”

Average visitor stays in the Algarve are 3.82 nights, but non-European visitors will typically stay in Portugal for nine or 10 nights, visiting several regions. The RTA is working closely with Portugal’s other regions under the umbrella of Turismo de Portugal to attract visitor markets that show promising growth potential, not only in volume terms but equally in spending power.

An international tourism reference

The RTA president acknowledges a more premium tourism offer will require training up hospitality staff and other tourism agents. Working all year round is enabling businesses to retain their employees, reducing the need to hire seasonal staff for the high season.

“For a high quality offer, we need competent staff and graduates. We’re qualifying our staff with courses for everyone up to and including director level. Our programme ‘Skills of the Future Algarve’ trained nearly 1,000 tourism professionals in its first year.

“We are increasingly seeing tourism authorities in other countries recognising that we are a few steps ahead. We’ve become an example to follow rather than a region trying to catch up. The key to this success is closely linked to our ability to be organised and create connectivity between public and private, national and regional entities.”

A backdrop of challenges

In a context of geopolitical turbulence, rolling out RTA’s new strategy does not come without considerable challenges. André Gomes cannot conceal his frustration at Portugal’s chaotic introduction of the EU Entry/Exit System (EES) that has been so harmful to the country’s image. After much prevarication by the Portuguese government, things are now working better, he says.

New equipment has been installed, and for June and July border staff have been reinforced at all airports. “I’m not as concerned by the situation as I was a few weeks ago. We’ve received new equipment at Faro Airport, and for July we’ve been promised 70 additional police officers for border control. I hope that now improvements have been implemented, we will be able to guarantee a more stable situation.”

Are there limits on capacity at Faro Airport, we ask. “Despite Faro exceeding 10 million passenger arrivals in 2025, we’re still able to grow in capacity.” New routes, particularly new direct routes have been added, involving both mature and new markets such as Romania and Poland.

Mature markets have equally been reinforced, with 300,000 additional seats for the UK.

“We have a 4% total increase in capacity for summer 2026, which represents an additional 400,000 seats. Connectivity is essential: not only new routes, but equally reinforced capacity on routes we already have, and the extension of routes which only operated during the summer to all-year round. Airlines are now approaching us and asking about the possibility to fly to Faro. When airlines want to grow their operations in Portugal, and see they can’t grow in Lisbon, they view Faro as a good alternative, and we’re delighted about this.”

How about the United States-Iran war? “In recent months some people have talked about the conflict being an opportunity for destinations in Southern Europe, such as Portugal which is considered an extremely safe country. I don’t think this is the main take away regarding the conflict, however. The critical thing is uncertainty, and the impact on the cost of fuel.

“Increased fuel costs generate a rise in the cost of all products and services, affecting everyone, and mean people have less money available for leisure and vacations. We’re not seeing a rise in costs in the tourism sector in the Algarve, because, until now, businesses have been swallowing increases, but I’m concerned they won’t be able to do this indefinitely. However, the quality of our offer makes us very confident about how we will perform this year and gives us the determination to face an uncertain future.”

Climate change and sustainability

The Algarve, like so many other regions, faces the impacts of climate change. What measures is the RTA taking to adapt to the new climate reality? “Sustainability is central to our strategy in the Algarve. We must address the management of our water resources in a responsible manner. We’ve created the ‘Save Water Seal’ to attest our hotels and accommodation are saving water, and we’re now extending this certification to car rentals.”

In 2025, a year during which activity increased by 6.5%, there was a 13% reduction in water consumption in the region’s hotels. Golf courses, extremely thirsty water drinkers but equally a strong economic driver generating around €500 million annually for the local economy, have been improving management of their water use by using treated wastewater, through a €23 million investment under the Water Efficiency Plan, with €15 million of the total funded by the European Union.

“Our goal is to have 50% of our golf courses watered with treated wastewater by 2028, saving the water in reservoirs for public supply.”

A mature international tourism destination

Looking ahead to 2030, what kind of tourism destination would André Gomes like the Algarve to be? “I would like the Algarve to be a mature international tourism destination, with a diverse offer of quality that also embraces sustainability. The Algarve is a small region compared with many European regions, but within a small territory, we are advantaged by an extremely diversified offer and a wide range of experiences, from the coast to the interior and the mountains, and from West to East.

“I want to provide a high-level performance all year round, throughout the entire territory, and generate a positive impact on the local economy, for the people who live and work here.”

Described as a ‘pivotal year’ for Algarve tourism, revenue growth of between 4% and 6% is forecast for 2026, with Portugal’s tourism sector potentially accounting for 20% of national GDP by 2030-2035.