The Volkswagen launch of its Tiguan at the Herdade dos Salgados hotel and conference complex in Albufeira has been another success story for the NAU Hotels & Resorts Group.
The eight week show, ending on April 24th, will see 19,000 people arrive for a presentation of the new car model, a total of 28,000 overnight stays.
NAU’s executive director said the new model will be on sale from May and the interest from the trade and VW visitors has been exceptional with 300 people a day staying at the hotel with many using Albufeira’s restaurants and bars.
Since the end of February there have been between charter flights arriving daily with people from all over the world to participate in the Tiguan Experience 2016.
The presentation is for VW’s global network of sales and distribution colleagues and the company is pinning much hope on reversing its fortunes with the new model.
Herdade dos Salgados was reserved exclusively for the VW event which has enable NAU, owned by ECS Capital, to keep on 200 staff through the winter and to hire 400 additional staff three months before the normal hiring period as two of the resort’s hotels have been opened earlier than usual.
The person in charge of the VW event, Sandra Waidelich, said the choice of Portugal for the launch site was taken before the emission scandal hit the company and that she believes the new model will be a success and that Volkswagen is committed to regain the trust of its customers.
Albufeira’s mayor trotted out the usual comments about VW’s investment in the area which will held the region get back on its feet etc.
The Secretary of State for Tourism, Ana Mendes Godinho, also visited and said this launch was "one of the answers that satisfies the need for Portugal to have tourism all year long" to combat seasonality.
Godinho is pulling together a "shock team" to work on the conference market which she described as "an important lever” to help get companies to put on large events in the off-season, “especially in areas of the country where these do not usually happen.”
