The other side of paradise

A change of direction in the tourism policy of Madeira has led to the growth of a new generation of hotels. Jenny Webster reports from the island of flowers

GONE is the old image of Madeira as the hunting ground of an elite group of visitors, a playground for the rich and famous to while away time at traditional establishments such as Reid's Palace Hotel. In its place is a new Madeira, one which markets itself on activities such as diving, climbing and mountain-walking as well as on its flora and fauna.

At least, that's what the Madeiran tourist board wants visitors to believe. It's also the basis of its current campaign, which bears the slogan: "You can feel nature all around you."

"The idea," says Luisa Telo, director of promotions at the Madeiran regional tourist board, "is to present Madeira as a destination that continues to maintain quality of service, but which now offers new possibilities for the younger, more adventurous niches of the market."

In line with this, a new generation of hotels is springing up outside of the capital, Funchal, where nearly 50% of the island's population lives. The traditional resort hotel is still going strong, but it's to the country house market that developers are turning.

One such newcomer is Casa Velha, a 25-bedroom, five-star hotel with an 18-hole golf course, which opened just outside Funchal last May. Casa Velha is owned by Adam and Christina Blandy, part of the same family that owned Reid's before its sale last year to Orient Express Hotels. The Blandys are no strangers to the country house scene - they used to run Bishopstrow House at Warminster in Wiltshire.

A new hotel in a predominantly tourist market must rely heavily on organisations such as Thomson Classic Collection, Prestige, Sovereign and Airtours. But there are plans to target the fully independent traveller market once the hotel has developed a reputation. Then Casa Velha should come into its own, making a return on its £1.6m investment.

"Unlike the nearby Canary Islands, Madeira is not based on mass tourism," says deputy general manager John Broad. "The emphasis is on the quality product, one which can command correspondingly high rates." And rates will be high. Suites will sell for £250 and achieved average room rates could reach £120.

With such rates to be achieved from a discerning audience, it may sound tempting for English hoteliers, veterans of the country house hotel market, to take up the European challenge and head for Madeira. In theory, membership of the European Union should make this easy, but in practice there's a whole raft of legislation and red tape to cut through which require local help and a translator - not to mention a strong constitution.

Although Madeira is autonomous, its legal system mirrors that of Portugal. Employment law is especially complicated, with the law very much on the side of the employee. One of the most controversial areas is perhaps that of contracts. Every employee must have a contract containing a detailed job description based on a collective bargaining agreement that defines all sectors of the industry.

If an employer does not provide a contract within 14 days of the employee beginning the job, then the employee becomes "effective". This means they have a job for life and, except in cases of gross misconduct or three minor misconducts, cannot be dismissed. Normally, three contracts each of periods between six months and a year would be undertaken by all employees before they became effective.

Given the benefits, employees are naturally keen to become effective. The status offers them job security and helps obtain bank loans. For the employer, though, it's another story. An effective employee can be an apathetic one, who carries out the job description but goes no further.

To protect the employee further, employers are not allowed to fire and rehire in the space of six months, thus avoiding the situation where a worker could be continually on a contract, and never become effective. In reality, the situation is that employees are sometimes fired and then rehired by a sister hotel company, one loophole that helps maintain more fluidity in the workforce.

Wages, too, are subject to strict legislation. A minimum wage of £170 a month, payable 14 times a year, is in place across the island. A waiter in a one-star hotel would get £188 a month; a maitre d' and a head chef in five-star establishments £443 and £590 a month respectively.

The two "extra" months' payments are made just before a holiday and at Christmas. Tax brackets range from 11% to 42%. The only real money is to be earned at the top end of the market - a general manager of a five-star hotel could expect to earn around £45,000 a year, plus benefits.

All employees work 40 hours a week. Everyone has a timetable, and clocks in at the start of the shift and out at the end. There are exemptions for management, who can opt out of the timetable, although they have to sign an agreement to do so.

Asking other staff to do different or extra hours can prove a timetabling nightmare. An employee must be given 48 hours' notice of any proposed changes. Each employee has 21 days' holiday and is additionally entitled to 15 days' public holiday. If an employee's shift falls on a public holiday, then he or she can either decline to work that day, or work and be paid double time, or work for normal pay and be given two days off in lieu. If the option for time off is pursued, then this is taken within three days of the day worked.

For an island heavily dependent on tourism, it might be assumed that finding staff is not a problem, but it is. Waiting is seen as a lowly task, and Madeirans are often reluctant to wait on their fellow islanders. Many leave the island to seek work elsewhere, particularly the Channel Islands, where hours are shorter and wages higher.

There are two hotel schools that help provide a workforce and, for many employers, the answer is to take on work-experience students who do not have to be paid and hope that they return once their courses are over.

Setting up in Madeira is undoubtedly not for the faint-hearted but, for those brave enough to face the bureaucracy, there may be a Madeiran welcome. The regional government has declared the aim of an average increase of 4-5% in the capacity for accommodation, to make a total of about 20,000 bedrooms on the island by 2000. Already that target is being approached, with the current total at around 18,700.

Casa Velha may have set a trend, but others are already edging in. Other new country house operations include the75-bedroom Quinta do Furao in Santana, and the 50-bedroom Quinta Bella Vista in Funchal. The country house scene may still be in its infancy, but the signs are that it looks likely to expand.

Broad predicts that another four or five country house hotels will open in 1998. "Tourists are looking for something different," he affirms. "Country house hotels are definitely here to stay."

• See next week's Chef pages for recipes from Casa Velha with British chef Jonathan Bishop.