Summer hotel numbers up, but revenue drops

Hotels in the Algarve beat the averageOccupancy of Portugal’s remaining hotels may have been at pleasing levels this summer but did the sector make any money?

The Hospitality Association of Portugal said today that hotel revenue actually dropped 9.17% this August compared to 2012 - a pretty dire year with which to compare figures.

Albufeira pushes winter holidays to Dubliners

Albufeira, a winter destination tooAlbufeira’s tourism board has been in Ireland at the over 50s show to promote itself as an out of season holiday location. The tourism promotional arm of Albufeira council was enjoying the delights of Dublin at the end of October with the objective of investing in markets and segments to help combat seasonality in Albufeira which, of all the Algarve’s regions, has the greatest reliance on the summer trade.

Work starts on the Algarve's new Medical Faculty

New medical faculty for the AlgarveThe Faculty of Medicine at the University of Algarve in Faro is to become a reality in 18 months. Work started two weeks ago with a target completion date of summer 2015.

"The administrative process, from the preparation of the design, tendering and government approvals to move forward with the work took two and a half years," said João Guerreiro, rector of the University of Algarve (UAlg), indicating that the process had been time consuming but the medical school will be taking students in 2015/16.

Ryanair bends to customer demand

Ryanair goes soft The budget carrier has reached the conclusion that it has to do more to win business.  As a result, it announced that it will begin seat allocation starting in February 2014.

Its chief, Michael O’Leary, also confessed that the Ryanair website was "notoriously awful".

Poor education puts migrants into jobs

Immigrants fill jobsOne in five skilled jobs in the UK is now filled by an immigrant because of a lack of skilled British graduates.

Companies are obliged to hire foreign-born workers in a range of “strategically important” areas because children in Britain continue to shun maths and science studies, according to a review commissioned by the government.

Britons turn into sole traders

British sole tradersThe trend for people in the UK to become sole traders took has risen in the past few years and now stands at 1.7 million.

Research conducted by the insurer LV= found there are 1.7 million "one-man-bands" operating in the UK. Some 27% of these generate an annual turnover in excess of £51,000 and 5% earn in excess of £150,000.

5 Brits stabbed - Portuguese D.J. held by police

Partytime stabbingsA Portuguese Disc Jockey is being held by Spanish police in Majorca for allegedly stabbing five Britons at a partytime resort.

The incidents occurred in Calvia on Saturday. The suspect is alleged to have stabbed a man with a knife and was then chased by a group of four whom he also attacked causing serious injuries.

Millennium BPC loses a further €597 million in 9 months

BCP with major trading lossesThe Portuguese Commercial Bank (BCP), bailed out in 2012 by Passos Coelho using €3 billion of Troika funds, has recorded a loss of €597 million in the year to September, which is 'better than expected' according to analysts who are looking at last year’s equivalent period loses of €796 million.

The bank, trading on the high street through Millennium BPC branches, made provision for bad loans of €622.7 million, 10.2 % less than in the same period last year but still not good news for the bank’s boss Nuno Amado who also saw net interest income, the difference it earns between borrowing and lending money, down 17.5%.