In the Algarve, we are ready to go! We have recovered the major motorsport event for Portugal, Formula 1, and we will also be hosting the last race of the Moto GP World Championship. The feeling is of pride for hosting such events in the region and it is with great expectation that we start the countdown up to the date when both circuits will take place, now with new methods and processes!

We know well what it means, at a regional and national level, to host world-class sporting events… which have the unique capacity to publicise the Algarve next to millions of people around the world. The movements of the participants, their teams and the audience translate into immediate economic impacts and it is also expected that they generate a positive effect in the near future, considering that during the competition period all cameras will be pointing in the same direction: the host destination.

We must use the time when we are on the game – or in this case… on the track! – as a unique opportunity to remain on the podium for years to come.

The Algarve has been, for 40 years in a row, the main tourist destination for Portuguese and foreigners, and repeatedly recognized as the best European beach destination (awarded 6 times as such) and the best destination in the world (a rating that it has been obtaining in the last 3 years!). Since 2006, it has also been recognized several times by various entities as the best golf destination.

From the tourist point of view, sporting events should be perceived as strategic anchors that allow us to generate more notoriety for this destination, helping its promotion, internationally, before, during and after the events.

As a region that has been betting on the diversification of the tourist offer, the Algarve today has a wide range of activities that make the experience of a visit to this region more authentic and of unparalleled quality, as regards products and services, but also infrastructure favourable to host assorted initiatives. It is our ambition to attract even more sporting events and make this a regular and consolidated bet, which will allow us to be even more competitive and help us have more balanced tourist seasons throughout the year.

If we consider the multiplier effect of the hosting of the Formula 1 and Moto GP competitions in the Algarve, which are already taking place in low season and in such a clearly atypical year, the economic estimate is around 80 million euros, adding up direct and indirect revenues. These are data from the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve (AIA), which will host both events, but also make clear the significant contribution that events of this nature can bring to the region and its residents.

The Algarve has been able to reinvent itself over the years and will continue to do so!