The Algarve attains the highest numbers of tourists in a decade.

The Algarve, situated in the south of Portugal, is an important tourist zone of the neighboring country. There are more than 150 kilometers of beach, some 30 golf courses, festival and other events of interest throughout the year, and a wide-ranging offer of accommodations that includes inns with a style that is purely Portuguese, luxury resorts, and mid-level apartments and hotels.

The report carried out by AHETA, the Association of Hotel Managers and Tourist Businesses in the Algarve, with data from 2007, reveals values higher than those recorded in previous years. This is in all categories: tourist reception, overnight stays, and segments such as golf, high-end tourism, and casinos. The statistics reveal a visitor number of some six million tourists, with a distribution of 50% foreigners and 50% Portuguese. As for nationalities of the foreign visitors, the British maintain first place, followed by the Portuguese, the Germans, the Dutch, the Irish, and the Spanish.

The report's conclusions verify a complete reversal of the tendency observed since 2000. According to the report, the figures had not experienced very promising increases since the new millennium

Nevertheless, hotel management remains a matter unresolved in the Algarve. The surveys sent to AHETA by the business owners show that, while perhaps 2007 has been a year of interlude regarding the negative tendencies, it will not be considered a good campaign until it is in charge of 65% of the markets as a yearly average. From November of 2006 to October 2007, the occupancy rate was 63.7%, 3.1 points higher than those recorded from the same period the previous year.

The aim of the hotel owners for the coming years is clear: to reach the goal and then to go beyond. In fact, their effort in resources, improvements, and renovation of facilities has been an ongoing project since 2004, the year with the worst figures in that sector in the last decade. The investment in new presentations and the incorporation of all the technological advances that today's tourist desires are already a reality in the Algarve. There is also a need to emphasize the well-being, health, and beauty services, all necessary to compete in the 21st century outlook of hotel management.

This offer of hotels and spas or thalasso and thermal centers in the Algarve is currently available in 16 establishments. Six are in Loulé, one of the 16 municipal divisions of the region. Four can be found in Albufeira, three in Portimão, and the rest in the councils of Lagoa, Monchique, and Vila do Bispo. The establishments with health resources do not fall below the four-star range, and more than half lie in the high-end segment.