Funchal, Madeira, Portugal, Oct. 15, 2025 (Lusa) - Madeira will focus on quality tourism because, in quantitative terms, the limit of the Tourism Development Plan has already been reached, said the President of the Regional Government, Miguel Albuquerque, on Wednesday.
"Madeira's focus is not on quantity, but on quality," Miguel Albuquerque told journalists on the sidelines of the ceremony to award medals of merit for tourism to around 30 personalities and entities from the archipelago.
The head of the Madeira executive stressed that the region is undergoing "a process of reorganising this industry [tourism, one of Madeira's main economic activities]" and is doing "everything possible to avoid excessive pressure on the most sensitive areas from an ecosystem point of view".
"From the point of view of the industry itself, we want to continue to improve services, accommodation and catering in order to gain added value and not just quantity," he stressed.
The island's premier assured that the archipelago, in terms of tourism and “quantity, is currently very satisfied”, pointing out that with "the new hotel units that are going to appear, many of them already urban hotels, Madeira will not reach the limit of the POT (Tourism Development Plan)".
Albuquerque also announced that he will be present on the mainland on 30 October at a meeting of the Cabinet, together with the head of the regional government of the Azores, to address issues concerning the regions, insisting that it is necessary to "make changes" to the Regional Finance Law.
"If we don't make this change, Madeira will always be penalised under the current Regional Finance Law (...) for having economic growth and low debt," he stressed.
Albuquerque argued that "this idea of indexing the costs of the Cohesion Fund and the costs of insularity to GDP (Gross Domestic Product) growth is wrong" because as the region "develops, it is penalised".
According to the Madeiran leader, "the structural issues of the outermost regions and insularity remain", emphasising that this law "must be amended to ensure equity and that the State assumes, within the constitutional framework, the additional costs in education, health, social affairs, transport, mobility, energy and civil protection".
The regional Social Democrat minister indicated that the PSD was "available” to make this legislative change, which ‘'was agreed by the Prime Minister", Luís Montenegro, when he was in Madeira for the party’s annual festival in Chão da Lagoa in July.
"At this moment, what we need is to have the legislative initiative and then, in the parliament, we will see which parties with national and regional representation are in favour of the regions and which are not," he stressed.
Regarding the ceremony to award medals of merit for tourism, he highlighted that it was ‘first and foremost a cross-cutting recognition that tourism, being a very strong industry in Madeira, depends on all sectors and all social and work activities’.
"Tourism is an ecosystem that involves the whole community. Here, we recognise the direct and indirect contribution of a group of individuals and institutions that enhance our sustainability and tourist appeal,‘ he stressed, mentioning that individuals and entities that ’work on the levadas, forests, built and movable heritage, and who do important work in the hotel and restaurant sector" were recognised.
(Levada is the name given to a specific type of irrigation channel or aqueduct found on the island. These channels are characterised by being narrow and shallow. In most cases, they are carved out of the rock).
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