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Shopping Madness
Updated: 20-Apr-2012
As a villa owner in the Algarve for many years, I had visited the region regularly apart from an absence over the last two years.
Returning this Easter, friends who live here told my wife of the new shopping options that had been added to the region and hence we found ourselves in the strangely named Aqua Portimão shopping centre.
As someone who works in the property business, specifically in retail development (I am a chartered surveyor), I have always taken an interest in shopping centres and remember well when Algarve Shopping in Guia opened, around 10 years ago if my memory serves me right, followed shortly by Forum Algarve in Faro.
These first two major shopping developments were a welcome addition to the Algarve and have enjoyed the success they deserve, both offer decent leisure attractions along with good (albeit similar) mixes of shopping options and especially Forum Algarve is a well designed and pleasant environment in which to shop.
But what, may I ask, has Aqua Portimão added to the Algarve? The retail mix, save the dubious inclusion of a Primark store, is almost a clone of the other two shopping centres, but coupled with Portimão’s two nearby retail parks, and the traditional (but now deserted) downtown shopping areas of Portimão, it seems to offer shoppers absolutely nothing new.
Add to this the lack of any leisure attractions such as cinemas, an extremely poor food court offering and the shoddy overall aspect of the place and I fear it is doomed for failure.
I understand that more shopping development is planned for the Algarve but what with the region’s seasonality as a tourism destination and the state of the economy, I hope that the developers and local governments have the sense to exercise some restraint.
PETER HEMMINGS
Manchester
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