Well how the mighty strong euro is making tourism in southern europe suffer-and I do not want to see Carvoeiro suffer as it is a wonderful holiday destination but convincing brits to rent my house this year has been nigh impossible:(

What restaurant is that? when most only pay max €5 ( normal €3) an hour for staff, that is hard to believe.

maciera is still cheap thank god

Perhaps he has made enough money in the last 15 years!!!

Its a bit of a vicious circle isn't it? I guess the restuarants will have to rely on their fellow Eurolanders for their livlihoods, although my experience is that most of the Germans, Dutch etc; eat in their Hotels. I was out in April and took a number of steps to keep my spending under control. We eat out less often and ordered beer and water with our meals rather than wine. We stuck to a main course only. We would more often than not cook and eat in our apartment and go into town for drinks only. We would have a couple of drinks in our apartment before going out thus drinking less when out. Necessary cutbacks for us but not so good for the local economy. Its bound to have repercussions and we will probably see a few places going under.

Heres something interesting though.. a couple of years ago we went to Cala D'or on Majorca. This place is mainly patronised by the Brits and things were roughly the same price as the UK after currency conversion. The following year we booked a 'last minute' hol and ended up in Cala Ratjada on Majorca just around the coast from Cala D'or. Cala Ratjada is almost exclusively German. Everything, and I mean everything, including Lladro was less than half the price. A jug of Sangria was 5 euro as opposed to 15 euro etc. When I asked why this was I was told "The Germans will not pay the crazy prices the English do"
Both of these local economies were thriving!? A lesson maybe?

While I'm sure the pound/euro is contributing to the empty restaurants, I do think the owners have themselves partly to blame.

Over the past 5 years so many Brits (and other Northern Europeans) have visited the lovely local restaurants and commented on how cheap it is to eat out. The owners have heard this and the prices have risen in Euros year on year, such that its no longer as cheap to eat out - even if you come from Euroland - or even Portugal !.

By the way, I passed Bon Bon tonight, looked in at around 7pm with a view to booking later in the week. They seemed open, I didn't enter, no tables were occupied (yet?), but the menu prices are very similar to what we pay in the Surrey stockbroker belt !

Well everywhere looked pretty busy to me last week.
(but then again, I was in town

Regardding my comment on the restaurant Bon Bon being closed-unfortunately I have made a grave mistake and i mis interpreted information- I apologise profusely to the owner At De Bruin for leading readers to believe that the restaurant was temporarily closed-I sincerely regret any distress and inconvenience caused to At and his staff and clients-Tony Foxwell

I belong to a writer's forum which has quite a few American members.
A couple of days ago one American posted that a town in California had declared itself 'bankrupt'. He said through 'slight of hand' the word 'recession' wasn't being used but that none the less it was happening and that he found it scary!
Watching BBC 2 Newsnight last night and hearing that inflation had risen here in UK to 3.3%, it was being predicted that would rise to 4% or more by Christmas and that unemployment is well on the rise again.....will that mean a 'little recession' or something bigger to worry about d'you think?

Over the last decades the development of the tourism industry in Carvoeiro has been accompanied by a cyclic change in the predominant nationalities visiting this town. (The predominant nationalities being alternating english and german)
This also reflects in the property ownership ratios, where the ball seems to be kicked back and forth over a period of roughly 7 to 10 years.

In most cases this change reflects the economic situation of the countries, ie wether they are on an upward or a downward trend.
Let's face it, if times are tough, the second home abroad will be one of the first options to let go of.

Whilst the UK is now experiencing an economic downturn and the exchange rates will almost certainly reflect in a 5-10% increase in travel costs for holidays in the euro zone, the germans are now slowly recovering from a slump and along with other central and northern European countries (direct scandinavian flight connections are now available) are set to move into the gaps.

The difference compared to previous cycles is that the offers of residence and services in the tourist sector have risen exponentially compared to the eighties and nineties. As a result, we will probably start seeing more focus on quality and competitive pricing, which should be beneficial for visitors from abroad.

A very interesting and informative contribution to the debate Gambrinus. Being from Ireland we have been in the Euro since its inception and it does take any doubt out of the equation. Outside of having to exchange currencies and all the hidden costs associated therein English people also need to keep reminding themselves of the exchange rate when making purchases. It is obviously more expensive now for UK people to stay in the village but one noticeable increase which hits us all is the staggering rise in the global price of fuel. I like to travel down 4-5 times a year with some of the budget airlines and will be there next week for a few weeks but I am certainly thinking twice about October and Christmas. I simply cannot get any value for money on flights. As you will know better than I a lot of the bars and restaurants have changed hands over the last few years due to a downturn in business. I fear it might be much tougher times ahead. Even those who are reasonably well off are feeling the pinch as witnessed by the uptake or lack of it on the golf courses this year. I have had no problem whatsoever booking any tee time of my choosing which has not always been the case. In the meantime we will go down and drink our troubles away

Robbie wrote:A very interesting and informative contribution to the debate Gambrinus.
In the meantime we will go down and drink our troubles away

Yes very informative G thank-you....
and in the meantime Robbie, your idea sounds a very good one

They do say when America sneezes, we catch cold..so lets hope it will be a short cold and not full blown 'flu!

Ive always wanted us to have the Euro but nothing seems to be moving on that front at the moment.

But tell me, those of you living in Portugal, Ireland et al, are your prices on the up all the time now?
Here in UK in the last year food prices have risen by 60% (in the past week or so Ive seen a small pack of chicken goujons go from £3 to £4 and packs of ham for nothing under £2-30p)....and utilities such as gas heating etc have risen by no less than 160%!
Up north from here in the paper yesterday a petrol station charged a chap £1-99p for a litre of petrol!
I do find it all rather worrying.

Is it my imagination or are people driving a lot more carefully and slower since the price of fuel went up?
The pavements seem busier with more people walking.
The buses in my area are fuller...and not just with OAPs.
People are throwing less food away and are making the effort to understand exactly what Use by and Best before dates actually mean.
People are buying cheaper fresh produce rather than expensive processed gunk.
Re-cycling is actually proving to be a big success with everyone I know.
And, going off at a slight tangent... I understand that since the smoking ban there has been a 40% reduction in the number of patients being treated for smoking releated illnesses.

Is something very positive coming out of all this adversity or is it that I am so fed up with the doom and gloom merchants in the papers and on TV that I'm grasping at straws?

Like your thinking Terry, but grab a large handful of these...

Very good E very good I think Terry has a point thought most especially here in Ireland. Over the last 10 years we have witnessed growth which was beyond our wildest dreams and we have become a wealthy nation on the back of it. I don't however believe that we have become a better nation for it. But I also notice over the last few months a sense of reality coming back into the equation. All the people who were flooding into Ireland to work are now flooding back out. Business activity is down dramatically and the medium term outlook is far from good. But it has brought with it a new sense of belonging. A new awareness that you cannot spend your way out of trouble. In relation to inflation Ellie it is even worse here. All of the same issues as you have outlined and a few more to boot but international retailers seem to think we still a feb quid in Ireland and are going to take it off us. Just yesterday figures were released by the consumer watchdog which showed that Dunnes Stores and Tesco were charging 35% more for exactly the same basket of goods in the Republic than they do across the border in Northern Ireland. I live on the border and I know where I'll be shopping The ridiculous thing about it is that these type of reports have been coming out for months but consumers seem loathe to change. We now have Aldi and Lidl competing at a much lower price point but people are not voting with their feet. I take a keen interest but will never understand economics and the habits of the human race The moral of the story is reinforce the doors, secure the windows and hibernate for a few months and hope this storm blows over but you had better take plenty of food and a few jugs of Agale "Sangria" because it could be a long one