Dam hotels get green light

The Algarve region will have new tourist attractions in the near future as the Arade and Funcho dams have three hotels planned for construction, aiming to attract people to the Algarve’s interior region.

According to the provisional plans for the two dams, a 100 bed hotel will be built in the area surrounding the Arade dam, providing leisure and recreational activities. Two mooring points with access ramps, a boat collection area, a museum and education unit, and a car park will be built to complement the hotel.

In the Funcho area, a practically abandoned rural area will be renovated to bring in ‘village tourism’ and it will have other new structures, such as a restaurant and mooring points for boats travelling across the reservoir. The plans also mention a 160 bed development in the Abruteais area.

Even before the plans were passed, several private investors have shown their interest in building tourist developments in the area, but only now do they have the conditions to carry out such projects.

Isabel Soares, Silves Mayor, has demonstrated her approval of these projects: “These projects are very important to diversify the Council’s tourist attractions and diminish the asymmetries that currently exist between the coastal and interior area”, for which the Council “will give all possible support towards its completion.”