The Algarve Tourism Board was founded on March 18th 1970, when Salazar ruled the country with a fiscal and political rod of iron, Faro airport had been open for less than five years (pictured), and actor Lee Marvin had a surprise No.1 with ‘Wand’rin’ Star’ which had just knocked ‘Bridge over Troubled Water’ by Simon and Garfunkel into second place.
Technology and music have changed rather since the early '70s and the tourist board is launching a 45th anniversary campaign on Facebook to promote the region and its own magic powers of longevity through periods of management upheaval and instability.
The VisitAlgarve Facebook page has begun its postings but more importantly, the Algarve will soon welcome the Prime Minister to a conference in Loulé alongside a start-studded cast all of whom want to keep their jobs after the next election, including the Secretary of State for Tourism, Adolfo Mesquita Nunes, the President of Turismo de Portugal, João Cotrim Figueiredo, the president of the Regional tourist Board for the Algarve, our very own Desidério Silva.
The host is the smooth talking President of Loulé council, Vítor Aleixo.
To bring some reason and sense to what easily could end up as a party political broadcast, veteran businessman André Jordan will attend as well as a former Secretary of State for Tourism, Vítor Neto and the director of Faro Airport, António Correia Mendes.
On the 18th March, this debate, titled "Tourism in the Algarve: Past, Present and Future" will mark the beginning of the birthday celebrations for the Algarve Tourist Board at the Ria Park Hotel & Spa in Vale do Garrão (Almancil).
The Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho will chair the opening session.
Two media names will moderate the discussion the deputy director of Lusa, Ricardo Jorge Pinto, and the deputy director of Expresso newspaper, Nicolau Santos.
For the celebrations, the Região de Turismo do Algarve is to announce an awards scheme, the Tourism Merit Awards, which will go to people who have excelled in the development and enhancement of the Algarve in recent decades.
The winners will be announced on World Tourism Day on 27th September.
But the Facebook campaign is the main event www.facebook.com/VisitAlgarve where Internet users can collect a set of 45 virtual trading cards depicting the Algarve as a tourist destination.
A five minute promotional video is being produced with testimonials from foreign tourists about the charms of the Algarve.
The blog.turismodoalgarve.pt will be running ‘the 45 strangest questions from tourists in tourist offices,’ and is releasing an e-book of '45 things that characterise the Algarve’s soul.'
The RTA, then called the Comissão Regional de Turismo do Algarve (Regional Tourism Commission of the Algarve,) was created March 18, 1970, by Decree-Law No. 114/70.
