Portugal’s Tourist Board, through state company Empresa Nacional de Turismo (Enatur), currently controls the Pousadas de Portugal hotel business with the Pestana Group holding a minority shareholding of 49% through Grupo Pestana Pousadas.
The groundwork for a sale of the state’s 51% ownership of Pousadas de Portugal to Pestana Group is to be completed by the end of this year.
In late October, Turismo de Portugal’s president, businessman Joao Cotrim Figueiredo hired a law firm to advise on the sale process. The conclusions with regard to the privatisation model and its economic viability will be delivered in the next few weeks.
"From a technical point of view, Turismo de Portugal believes it is possible by the end of the year to be in a sale position," explained Figueiredo.
Then it is up to the Ministry of the Economy, under whom the Secretary of State for Tourism works, to take a decision on whether to go ahead with the sale or not.
The minority shareholder in Enatur, the Pestana Group, which already has the rights to run the chain of 37 state owned hotels, is said to be willing to buy out its partner.
The President of Turismo de Portugal said that there needs first to be a "decision on the alternatives open to the privatisation process,” after which a sale to Pestana may be completed.
Whether other interested parties will be allowed to bid for the 51% owned by the state, aka the taxpayer, remains to be seen and if this is a one horse race, doubts will circulate that Pestana may get the chain of unrivalled hotels in some of Portugal’s most historic buildings on the cheap.
Pestana already has received criticism for closing underperforming hotels in the Pousada chain and the potential transfer of unique parts of Portugal’s architectural heritage into private hands could later enable the breaking up of the Pousada chain which was set up from 1942 to encourage tourism in Portugal, not to enrich private companies.
The Pousada de São Brás in the Algarve (pictured) was ditched by the Pestana Group due to poor performance and in February 2014 was being transformed into a 'time-share' facility by its new Danish owners.
Three Pousadas remain in the Algarve,
Pousada Convento de Tavira
Pousada de Sagres
Pousada Palácio de Estoi
If this model is continued the Pousadas de Portugal chain can be sold off piecemeal, as and when Pestana Group needs the money.
See:
http://www.pousadas.pt/historic-hotels-portugal/en/corporate/pages/legacy.aspx
http://www.algarvedailynews.com/news/1511-pousada-de-sao-bras-turned-into-timeshare-project
Comments
Yes, if the idea is to promote all that is best in Portugal through a well thought out regional network. It could be part of the ample tourism budget but hang on, why are we assuming a loss making business?
The way Pestana has gone about it is to ensure the properties that it does not want, perform badly and to ensure overall that things do not look good financially. It then can pick up the chain for a low price and later market the hotels successfully which it is quite capable of doing, but has failed to do under the current set up - no incentive.
The whole business needs a rethink, clearly the current offer is old fashioned, pricey and inefficient.
I believe that it is capable of integrating into the various niche markets that the tourist board keeps banging on about and could have a great future.
Selling it off to a group that will sell off the bits it doesn't like seems a shame...
I agree that many of these buildings have been preserved as a result of government intervention, but I ask again, is running a hotel chain a proper use of taxpayers´ money? If these hotels cannot be made to pay, then they are a needless drain on the public coffers, while some people haven´t enough to eat.
The plight of the pousadas is an illustration that hotels have been constructed in places where no-one wants to stay. The state hotel chain has been run by people who would not be able to run a non-funded hotel group. This is why they are expensive, bureaucratic and often in the wrong place. It is interesting that the illustration you chose, Santa Clara, is not an old building, but was purpose built by the Pousada group when under state control. It was and is in the wrong place.
I suppose because there is more to life, art and architecture than P&L.
The range was extended in the 1950s and historical buildings and monuments, castles, convents and monasteries, some abandoned or in a state of degradation were renovated specially for this purpose.
Had these renovations and some major structural work not happened we now would have more ruined buildings that nobody much cares about - no doubt seen as 'part of Portugal's glorious past.'
If these Pousadas end up wholly in private hands they could in theory revert to private use.
The Pousada at Santa Clara reservoir sits abandoned as an example of what can happen when the slide-rule of profit and loss is the only tool used.
These Pousadas are assets owned by the state on behalf of the Portuguese people who seem to have zero say in their threatened disposal.
In view of the mountain of debt in Portugal, a more sensible question is: why is Portugal hanging on to a string of hotels, when hotel owning is not the business of government?