(2nd September). ‘Promotions in the Portuguese market "are yielding good fruit" – Tourism bucks the national trend with the number of visitors from the mainland rising 34%’. The regional director of Madeira Islands Tourism highlighted that the focus on the domestic market to counter the crisis is working, with the number of Portuguese visitors growing 34 percent in June. "In the domestic market we are going against the tide, and we have seen a significant increase of tourists visiting us, as shown in the preliminary statistics from January to June this year, that grew 14 percent", said Raquel França. She admitted that there are decreases in other traditional markets for Madeira, where the United Kingdom visitors fell in the order of 22 percent, and Germany, with a fall between four and seven percent.
‘SBA Will Have Two Weekly Flights In October And November – The airline is launching the route Caracas – Madeira – Tenerife with two visits weekly’. The decision is the result of a ‘low season’. On Sundays the flight will depart from Venezuela at 7 pm, fly direct to Madeira for 7 am Monday. It will then leave 2 hours later for the Canary Islands, before flying back to Venezuela. The second flight will leave Caracas on Thursdays at 7.15 pm, flying to Tenerife, and then on to Madeira, leaving then at midday Friday to fly directly back to Caracas. In December and January the flight will revert to once weekly, and not include Tenerife in the schedule.
From today’s Jornal da Madeira . ‘Lobo Transports Over 74 Thousand Passengers In One Month – New statistics from Porto Santo Line return to show growth’. 74,301 to be exact, was a new record for the company that operates the ferry Lobo Marinho between Madeira and Porto Santo. The record was reached on 31st August, breaking all before, since transport between the two islands was established. August last year the number was 70,532 making an increase this year of 5.3%. The results show a recovery for the operating company, who say the the first 3 months of 2009 were best to "forget", having lost 8 thousand passengers compared to the same period in 2008. The recovery began with an unprecedented campaign of reduced price tickets, along with promotions and holiday packages, that in the first 8 months of this year improved on the passenger numbers from the same period last year. More passengers maybe, but at lower prices it remains to be seen how profitability will be affected.