At the age of 90, André Jordan, a reference businessman in national tourism, died to the point of being considered the “father of Portuguese tourism“. The death occurred last night and was confirmed to Negócios by a family source.
André Jordan’s wake will take place this Sunday at the Basilica da Estrela, and the funeral will take place on Monday, after a procession to the church of Nossa Senhora de Fátima, in Almancil, in the Algarve.
The businessman born in Poland in 1933 was the creator of Quinta do Lago, Belas Clube de Campo, and turned Vilamoura into a success story. Jordan was born in Poland in 1933 and grew up in Brazil, the country where his family fled Nazi persecution in Europe, according to the businessman’s biography available on the André Jordan Group website. He had dual Brazilian and Portuguese citizenship.
He came to Portugal in 1971 and created Quinta do Lago, one of the most emblematic Portuguese tourist developments. He sold the project in the 1980s and headed to London to take on a role as executive administrator at a multinational real estate company.
At the beginning of the 90s he created another emblematic project in Portugal, this time in the Lisbon region: Belas Clube de Campo.
In 1995, he acquired the company that owned Vilamoura and ended up selling this company to Spanish investors in 2006.
Em 2022, guest on the Negócios podcast “Conversas Visíveis”, André Jordan recalled his life path, remembering that when he began to understand the world, Europe was still experiencing the consequences of the Second World War. “Nobody believed in the future,” he recalled.
Jordan did not, however, want to stop commenting on current affairs at the time: he asked for a 12% VAT rate on tourism.
“I want to stay in Almancil. I was very happy in that area”
In 2018, in a life interview Business, spoke with satisfaction about his life journey and reflected, calmly, about the future. Even about the one she would no longer be part of.
“As I’m already at an age where I have to think, or I don’t have to think but I think, I think about the future and I thought about where I want to be buried. Where do I want to go? I wanted to stay in the Almancil cemetery, at the foot of the church of São Lourenço, which is one of the most beautiful churches in Portugal, small, but beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Because I was very happy in that area”, he said, adding: “I did things that stayed. I know the population. Thousands of people have passed through our companies and, over the years, I have met people, on the street or anywhere, who say: ‘I worked with you. My father worked with you. And now it’s my grandfather.’, he said between laughs and a guarantee: “Word of honor”.
“I talk to a lot of people. I really enjoy doing this exercise”
The businessman had a multifaceted life: he was a journalist and “had a regular presence on the opinion pages of some of the main Portuguese and Brazilian newspapers”, and was also the author of 7 books, reports the André Jordan group.
One of them is “A journey through life”, published in 2019 with a revised and expanded second edition in 2020. That year, quoted by the Observador, he stated: «I consider myself a student of events and people, I try to interpret the reason for things happen and how they happen and predict the evolution of events. The secret is to correlate things that are apparently unrelated but are indicators of facts, trends or events.” Even today I receive a lot of information, thoughts, ideas and talk to a lot of people. I really like that and doing this exercise is an addiction like any other» .
Decorated in Portugal, Brazil and the United Kingdom
He was decorated by the Portuguese State with the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit and is a Grand Officer of the Order of Infante D. Henrique.
In 2021, he received the career award at the National Tourism Award and in 2022 he was distinguished with the Tourism Leaders Award.
He is an honorary citizen of the city of Rio de Janeiro and received the Gold Medal from the cities of Loulé and Sintra, in addition to Turismo de Portugal.
He was given the key to New York City.
In 2020, he was granted by the British Royal House the right to use the title of Officer of the British Empire.
André Jordan was a Doctor Honoris Causa from ISCTE, Lisbon University Institute, and the University of Algarve.
He had four children and nine grandchildren.
André Jordan’s body will be in the Funeral Chapels of the Estrela Basilica, in Lisbon, this Sunday, from 6pm to 10pm. O funeral takes place on Monday, February 12th, from 10am, with a funeral mass being celebrated in the same location, informs Servilusa. A funeral procession follows to the Algarve: from 11 am, the procession leaves for the Parish Church of Nossa Senhora de Fátima, in Almancil, where a funeral mass will be celebrated at 4 pm. The body then goes to the Almancil cemetery.