The president of the Algarve regional tourist board and former mayor of Albufeira, Desidério Silva, is powerless to prevent the sort of group booking that caused so much trouble and negative publicity last Sunday night in Albufeira as police cleared The Strip amid violent outbreaks.
Silva has asked for care to be taken in the sale of these sorts of low-price bulk bookings after around 1,000 young tourists from the UK arrived at Clube Praia da Oura resort as part of the 'Invade Portugal' five-day festival that promoted alcohol, events, entertainment and the chance to get laid in 'one of the biggest Summer Link ups.'
The GNR and riot police were called in on Sunday night and cleared ‘the Strip’ area as violence flared outside a bar, leading to general disturbances, missiles being thrown at police, weapons discharged into the air by officers and some injuries among officers and revellers.
The president of the Algarve region tourist board says that the sorts of incidents that occurred in Albufeira in the last few days were 'occasional' and warned of the need to rethink certain types of tourism offer.
“These are incidents that do not help any tourist destination and should be avoided so that the image of the region is not jeopardised because the Algarve is a consolidated a reference destination," without saying how they should be avoided or who would be responsible for turning away large groups.
Desidério Silva insisted that there must be "some care taken in the sale of low-priced offers for a destination like the Algarve," after the incidents that occurred last Sunday.
The president of the region’s hotel association, Elidérico Viegas, called for more supervision of nightlife venues.
“There is the idea installed in this type of clientele that in Albufeira there is an opportunity to misbehave," and that the offer type is wrong as it attracts “this type of tourist."
Desidério Silva said that the bars themselves are jointly responsible for these sorts of violent incidents and that “this must be analysed,” as it becomes clear that there is little in the way of coordinated thinking as to how to solve these sorts of problems.
Silva has been "looking for entities that have more interference in this process to try to find solutions to minimise all these impacts," but is at a loss as to what to do within the existing legal framework.
"I have already spoken with the GNR command at a district level, which has given all assurances that they will be alert to prevent incidents and to try and understand how these groups come and where they are staying and to intervene as a deterrent so that this does not happen again and does not put into question the image of the Algarve," said Silva.
Luís Alexandre, president of the Albufeira traders association, said that "the brawls between tourists on vacation in the region happen every year, especially in areas near bars," and are triggered by the over consumption of alcohol.
"There is no sense of fear among the traders because these incidents occur outside the bars, but these are not pitched battles as have been publicised by the media."
According to Alexandre, "there is no record of traders who have been harmed, although there are small disturbances, which are normal in any commercial zone,” and he recommends "greater visible policing to act as a deterrent in bar areas where there are lots of people that tend to cause incidents due to alcohol consumption."
The Sunday violence received wide publicity in the UK press as the Invade Portugal festival had been promoted as a hedonistic five day blitz of cheap booze and casual sex.
The Invade Portugal organiser, a 23-year-old Londoner from Hackney, Reiss Brightly, said he "does not condone the behaviour" of those involved in the violence which started on Sunday night and was followed up by a well-publicised cat fight among three women at Faro airport on Tuesday as they queued at passport control.
The police prevented two of the women from boarding their homeward flight but no arrests were made.
easyJet avoiding the truth
Three British men were thrown off the easyJet 10.20pm fight to Gatwick from Faro after the week-long chaos caused in Albufeira. Police removed the men at request of the Captain after they had 'disrespected boarding rules' caused 'unrest' and were disobedient.
The men will be fined and Hugo Marado, from the public security police in Faro, said, 'We can confirm we were asked to expel three passengers from a flight yesterday evening.
'It wasn't because of violence but because they were disrespecting the airline's boarding rules.'
EasyJet came out wth a conflicting statement,
'easyJet can confirm that flight EZY2022 from Faro to London Luton on 27 June returned to stand due to two passengers feeling unwell. The passengers disembarked along with three other members of their group who chose to accompany them. Once the passengers had disembarked the aircraft continued on its journey. The safety and wellbeing of passengers and crew is always easyJet's priority.'
Hugo Marado confirmed police had been called to remove three men from the easyJet flight,commented to Portuguese TV, "It was behaviour that didn’t guarantee safety for the flight. For that reason the captain of the plane decided to activate the police and remove them."
Either Hugo Marado or easyJet are being economical with the truth.
