Algarve is far and away Portugal's most popular tourist destination with over 25 million visitors annually. Located in the extreme southern part of the country, Algarve stretches from the Spanish border on the east to the Atlantic Ocean in the west. Despite the huge number of visitors the region receives, though, the Algarve only hosts around 25,000 dives annually. IPIMAR, a Portuguese agency dedicated to the ocean, is hoping to change that.

Recently, IPIMAR announced its desire to promote scuba diving in the region. The announcement is one component of the SUBMED -- the Strategy for the Sustainable Development of Subaquatic Tourism -- Project, which will be finalized this September. According to Miguel Neves dos Santos, a biologist for IPIMAR, the gap between the number of visitors and the number of dives made needs to be reduced, if the country wants to make scuba diving a sustainable economic activity. 

If the region is already a tourist wonderland, why are there so few divers? The good folks at Dive Inspirations speculate that it's the fault of chilly waters. (In fact, sea water temperatures range from only 57F to 71F.) Additionally, I'd like to point out that surfing vacations in this area are popular, and maybe people are turned off by rough seas. Nevertheless, this is great news for Algarve's local dive shops, like Tivoli-Diving, Marina Dive Time, Espirito Azul, and Dive-Time.

Have you been diving in the Algarve region? What did you think?