writes Jack Fagan 

FOR MOST holidaymakers, Portugal means the Algarve, the mainstay of a tourism industry that is forecast to generate revenues of €12 billion this year.

However, filling the hotels and beaches of the southern Algarve coastline with an ever increasing number of package holidaymakers is not how Portugal sees the future of a sector of critical importance to the economy. The tourist board has been encouraging visitors to “go deeper” and discover the regions, particularly Alentejo, which covers about one-third of the country but accounts for less than 7 per cent of the population.

Little more than an hour from Lisbon, Alentejo is dominated by superb landscapes, ancient architecture and rolling plains planted with olive groves, cork trees and colourful vineyards. The vast rural countryside has any number of bleached-white towns that have changed little over the years, none more so than the hilltop village of Monsaraz, hidden behind a ruined castle with tiny whitewashed houses running along winding cobbled lanes.

From the castle battlements there are clear views over Alqueva Dam, the largest man-made lake in western Europe which stretches close to the Spanish border. For visitors wanting to spend part of their holiday on water, there are any number of houseboats available to rent.

The Algarve is suffering from overcrowding and overdevelopment as a direct result of cheap air fares. The huge popularity of the region, which accounts for more than half of Portugal’s tourism earnings, has not only meant that many other areas have fallen behind because of a lack of investment, but some tourist experts believe the Algarve has become a victim of its own success as overdevelopment begins to hamper its attractiveness.

Central to Portugal’s diversification plan is the further development of wine tourism as an alternative to a beach holiday and, more importantly, as a means of extending the tourism season into the early months of the year as well as through the autumn.

With the Portuguese authorities keen to attract more holidaymakers from Ireland, the tourist board’s Dublin-based director Jose Ramos escorted a group of wine experts and journalists to Alentejo recently to sample what was on offer. Everyone seemed impressed by the rugged, mountainous countryside, the almost deserted motorways, the warm hospitality of the hotels (the M’ar de Ar Muralhas, the Hotel Rural Horta da Moura and the Vila Galee Clube de Campo) and, more particularly, the wonderful seafood and meat dishes and some of the finest wines in the world.

With about half a million Irish tourists now choosing Portugal for their holidays and 85 per cent of them booking flights and accommodation separately, the tourist board is confident that these new-style holiday breaks will have a broad appeal here, particularly with those who enjoy good wines and traditional Alentejo food.

Ground handling agents and wine experts Vista DMC has been engaged to arrange five different holiday programmes for the Irish market which will be sold through the Dublin tour operator Just Split. And to ensure that everything runs smoothly Dublin-based wine expert Maria Madigan has been engaged to escort groups to the wine region where there are no fewer than 350 growers, some of them with vast estates similar to those in California. Alentejo is normally the hottest part of Portugal and though many tourists are happy to use its rambling coastline and its top notch golf courses in the main summer months, others prefer to visit the region in early summer or in the autumn when the temperatures are more manageable.

Hence the upsurge of interest in Portuguese wines which have become increasingly popular on world markets. A new generation of young wine makers, many with master degrees from Lisbon University, have transformed quite a few businesses by combining wine tasting with fine dining, warm hospitality and sometimes even cookery lessons. More importantly, they have demonstrated how adept they are at crafting unique blends and diversifying their portfolios with popular grapes.

With an increasing number of tourists opting for activity holidays, wine tasting trips are proving to be an attractive option.

Not surprisingly, Alentejo is getting more than its fair share of this business because of its unique wine route through stunning countryside where ancient and modern Portugal have combined to offer visitors luxury hotels in historical settings.

Now tourist authorities are attempting to bring the wine-tasting business to a new level.

Jack Fagan was a guest of the Portuguese Trade and Tourism Office and Aer Lingus. See vistadmc.pt. Tour operator Just Split (justsplit.ie) offers various trips to Alentejo, including the wine tours escorted by Maria Madigan.

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