Bit rich coming from me, I know, but there is genuine cause for my concern. The last time I visited my favourite county I had the worst airport experience EVER at Faro. My concern is if tourism soars the infrastructure is not yet in place to deal with it.
For me, one of the best things about going to Portugal is that (usually) it is a stress-free experience. You'd stroll through Faro Airport with hardly a queue at all at passport control and be in a taxi heading for paradise before you could say obrigado.
All that changed when we flew out last October. The airport arrivals area was like a scene from Ben-Hur, absolute chaos. The automatic passport barriers packed up one by one until not a single one was working and hundreds of people were waiting in vain to get through manual passport control. It took about an hour to get through, by which time our luggage had vanished. Our flight was no longer showing on any screen and there was no one to help. I eventually found my case by pure chance and a lot of running around.
Thankfully our taxi was still waiting though we were officially a no-show after taking more than an hour-and a-half to leave the airport. We were flabbergasted at how bad it had been after numerous silky smooth visits. The only thing we could put it down to was the fact that a lot of schools were on an extended half term break in the UK. But we have flown during school holidays before without incident.
Sadly, it was not a one-off. When we came to leave, the queues at Faro to get through airport security were unbelievable. People were panicking they would miss their flights. Full marks to airport staff for getting most people on their flights but.... we did question what the hell was going on.
Tourism rose by 22% in Portugal in 2016 and I am delighted for my favourite country. But don't mess up this chance for success by failing at the first hurdle.
First impressions matter and if people have to deal with airport chaos, especially if they are elderly or struggling with small children, they may never come back.
