Speaking to Lusa, the president of the Association of Hotels and Tourist Enterprises of the Algarve (AHETA), Hélder Martins, regretted that the request "made repeatedly, for at least two years, to several ministers and secretaries of State, has not yet had reception".

"We have been asking for the creation of a pool of available land that can be made available at acceptable, non-market prices, to build housing to accommodate hotel employees", he said.

According to Hélder Martins, the lack of “decent and affordable housing is the first problem to combat the lack of labour in tourism and to retain talent in the region", which is struggling with the lack of workers to the sector.

“Only in the last two years, I presented the proposal to several ministers and secretaries of State, but to date we have not received any response, despite everyone considering the proposal to be very good”, highlighted the businessman.

The AHETA leader considers that “this is the ideal time” to meet the hoteliers’ wishes, given that the review of municipal master plans (PDM), planning and territorial planning instruments, is underway.

“We consider it the ideal time to introduce this intention: the creation of a land exchange to be sold outside market prices and for the construction of housing within the social housing regime”, he reinforced.

The objective “is to enable housing of various types to be built, outside areas of tourist influence, four or five kilometres away from the hotel, to later be made available to employees”, he explained.

The official said he hoped that the proposal, also presented to the parties during the electoral campaign, “can be followed up in the short term, as all parties have expressed their agreement”.

Solving the problem of the lack of housing in the Algarve has also become a priority strategy for hotel entrepreneurs, when recruiting labour for the sector, a problem that has been getting worse in recent years.