Officials in Portugal are concerned that the disappearance of a four-year-old British girl from a hotel in the Algarve will discourage visitors from heading to the country's top tourism center.
The story has dominated front pages and had led newscasts in Britain since Madeleine McCann vanished from a resort in Praia da Luz two weeks ago after her parents left her, and her brother and sister, both aged two, alone while they went to a nearby restaurant. Police continue to search for her.
British visitors account for nearly 40 percent of all overnight stays in the Algarve, a region of sandy beaches and white-washed houses.
Six days after Madeleine went missing on May 3 the government suspended an international ad campaign promoting the Algarve.
The ad campaign is part of a stepped up effort by the authorities to boost the image of the Algarve as more than just a beach destination as it strives to compete with growing competition from cheaper Mediterranean sunshine destinations like Tunisia and Turkey.
Economy Minister Manuel Pinho said at the time that it would be a "sensible move" to delay the ad campaign but he said he did not think the disappearance of the four-year-old would stop tourists from coming to the country.
"Portugal is one of the safest destinations in Europe and that image should remain that way," he said.
Not everyone is as optimistic.
"It can't be good, it has been days and days of the media talking about nothing but this," said the manager of a 40-room hotel in the former fishing village of Quarteira in central Algarve, who said he did not want to be identified so as to not link his establishment to the case.
"People on a holiday want to relax, some people might not feel like the Algarve is a place where they can do that after reading about this," he said.
At stake is a sector that employs 10 percent of all workers in Portugal, a nation of some 10.5 million people, and generates about 8 percent of its GDP.
Police on Tuesday announced that they had identified a 33-year-old British suspect but did not have enough evidence to charge him. Their investigation continues.
Adding to the concerns of tourism officials is the fact that Praia da Luz is located at the more rural -- and quieter -- western end of the Algarve which is especially popular with families.
The case was drawn high profile attention in Britain. Former England soccer captain David Beckham and Manchester United striker Cristiano Ronaldo have made televised appeals for information.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has unveiled a new naval destroyer, claiming it as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, state media said yesterday. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim attended the launching ceremony for the 5,000-tonne warship on Friday at the western port of Nampo. Kim framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the US and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the North’s nuclear program. He added that the acquisition
RSS