Do you think that the Algarve is becoming more Portuguese/?

Let me tell you a little story:

Algarve faced a number of challenges in the last 260 years. It was a severely devastated region in the 1755 earthquake and tsunami. Despite efforts from the government, the reconstruction was slow. And even was slower if we considered that the industrialization in Portugal was quite late and often dilatory. The connection between the Algarve and Lisbon were mainly by boat.The first national railway was only active in in 1856. The priority was to connect the main cities and to Spain. The train arrived in Algarve in 1889, 25 years later than the north, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arrival_of_... and didn't have a major impact in the Algarve (the voyage still lasted more than 5 hours in 1960).

The first macadame road in the Algarve was only active in 1857 and the road to Lisbon was only completed in the XX century. In 1962, about 58% of the Algarve's population was in the primary sector. In 1960, there were only 40 km of highway in Portugal. In the 1940's, tourism gained a recognition of an important economic impact.

The Algarve then "was" considered a national paradise to be discovered and became a priority. Even more when the foreign demand for unknown and less urbanized European areas was increasing since the 1950's. So the Algarve was "there". With the exception of some very old spa towns, and few hotel resorts from the 1920's, the Algarve was not use for holidays in larger extent: the long beaches, the landscapes, the small fishing villages, the sun and relatively warm waters for European standards, the quite poor road accessibilities, the absence of facilities, was like a treasure for the ears of some. So in the 1960's, started the "explosion of construction".

In 1960, the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the death of the Infant D. Henrique, was the turning point.Everything changed, the landscapes were urbanized (with "lack of regulation", as it was described), the former industrious Algarve of fishing and cork economy was awarded with something that probably was not prepared to have: an industrial tourism. In the 1990's, there was a common expression that said "Tourism destroyed the Algarve".

In 1960, foreigner overnights was about 30 thousand and there were about 2500 beds available. By 1967, there were 500 thousand overnights and more than 6000 available beds. In 1962, it is decided to build the Faro airport (full operational by 1965), a highway (1st segment in 1966), and of course, the inauguration of the Salazar bridge in 1966 in Lisbon was a huge step forward to Algarve.

By 2005, Portugal had more than 2250 km of highways, and Algarve had more than 400 hotels and more than 100 thousand available beds (35% of the Portuguese total). The tertiary sector was about 73% of Algarve's economy, and out of the 417 thousand residents about 6% were foreigners, the highest in any Portuguese region. The South Highway connecting Lisbon to the Algarve was completed in 2002 and it takes just a couple of hours.

The Algarve is currently the 3rd richest Portuguese region in gdp per capita. Faro airport received more than 2 million passengers in 1990. In 2009, the airport had 5 million passengers. London represented the major slice by far, with 26% of the total passengers. About 68% of the British, 68% of the Dutch, 40% of the German that visited Portugal concentrated their overnights in the Algarve.

This means the Algarve in 2010 received 2,9 million guests, had 13,2 million overnights (9,4 million foreigners of which 3.7 million were British) and 541 million euro of profit. However, most of the foreigners arrived between May and September (around 6,8 million overnights).

So what am i trying to say? Algarve benefited and should be thankful to cosmopolitan tourism (and especially to British tourism), but the region is not only about bars, beaches and golf. The farthest you're from the beach, more chances you have of visiting unspoiled places. Algarve is still very much Portuguese and the most of it wasn't devastated, despite some areas in southern coastline. You just have to find it. The dispersion of foreigner residents by municipal regions is about 28-21 per 100 residents in Albufeira, Lagos, Aljezur, Portimão and Loulé, and in Alcoutim is only 2\100 residents. So the probability of finding Portuguese genuine stuff is more likely to happen in the east side of the Algarve, after Loulé, and in the northern hill sides of Monchique, than in the west. Go visit east then.

http://www.portugalvirtual.pt/_tourism/algarve/alc...

http://www.merceariabio.pt/imagens/mapa/mapa_algar...

http://www.cm-castromarim.pt/medievais/images/Cast...

http://www.sabinoboattours.com/en/ria-formosa

http://olhares.sapo.pt/serra-de-monchique-foto1851...

Sure, I suppose it is eventually over for them. Now with the entire DNA healthy being made with the proof from the hired auto's trunk, it is really no longer watching excellent for them. I'm wondering if they're charged if they are going to simply come clean and inform the reality? The object that bothers me the most is, even if they did kill Maddie unintentionally, why no longer come smooth and provides your daughter a correct burial? The notion that they would have hid her body and then put her body in the trunk like a section of bags just sickens me. If they did it, I wish they would simply come smooth and tell the police the place they hid Maddie so she will also be competently buried as any man or women deserves to be. I imply, this is their daughter for goodness sake! This entire case is just a tragedy.

You found the right answer (and the right mood) yourself. You don't need anyone's ideas. Anyway, just one: try to discover other parts of Portugal too besides Algarve. You'll find lots of nice surprises and you'll see how much variety there is to be discovered.

It will take another George Washington to chase them out of there!