Portugal’s national association for hoteliers has long complained that the illicit ‘grey’ market for tourist beds is damaging its trade and the association was the driving force behind government moves to regulate this Alojamento Local sector.

The hoteliers today claimed there are 350,000 tourist beds available in Portugal of which 192,000 are provided by hotels and hostels and the rest, 158,000, via private rentals registered on the national ‘Alojamento Local’ registry.

Tomi tourist information points already have landed in Portimão and Olhão, with additional sleek units arriving soon in Faro and Vila Real de Santo António.

The ‘interactive digital platform’ inside the Tomi units provides useful information to visitors. The  stand-alone information points are supplied by Canal Algarve a subsidiary of the region’s business association, ACRAL, in partnership with TomiWorld.

There are two accidents on the EN125 to report today, one of them near Lagos and the other near the Algarve Shopping centre at Guia.

“One dead and five injured” according to the police. The first accident was at 06:26 this morning in the Chinicato area near the Lagos aerodrome when a car and an EVA bus collided.

Referendum fever has spread with Turkey saying it could be the next country to hold one on whether it should continue to press for EU membership.

It was the first indication from President Erdogan that Turkey could back out of its stalled bid for membership.

A flight across the Atlantic powered just by solar energy has touched down in Seville airport. It was the first solo transatlantic solar flight.

The journey of experimental Solar Impulse 2 took 70 hours after departure from New York, leaving its Swiss pilot with the option of just a few short catnaps in an unheated and unpressurised single seat cabin.

The management of Portugal’s latest financial catastrophe, the State-owned bank Caixa Geral do Depósitos, is to present a plan by the weekend for a €5 billion refinancing package.

The proposal already has been approved in principle by the Left Bloc, the Communist Party and The Greens wioth the former coalition parties calling for a full inquiry into the bank's past and current management.

The cost of buying food in Portugal is below but fairly close to the average price in the EU countries, coming in at 94% of that cost.

Eurostat conducted a price survey of 440 products across Europe trying to assess the purchasing power in the nations.

Portugal’s weather service has issued a ‘high fire risk’ warning that weeks of fine weather and winds have dried out the Algarve’s countryside.

Seven council areas in the Algarve have been warned to be extra alert for fires and for citizens to take care to follow fire prevention measures.