Recognition of Gastronomic Heritage was main theme of World Tourism Day in the Azores - Communication

Secretaria Regional do Turismo, Mobilidade e Infraestruturas

The Regional Secretariat for Tourism, Mobility and Infrastructures, through the Regional Directorate for Tourism, celebrated World Tourism Day yesterday, September 27, with a conference held in Santa Cruz on the island of Flores.

Focused on Gastronomic Tourism, the conference featured a speech by the Regional Director for Tourism, Rosa Costa, who represented the Regional Secretary for Tourism, Berta Cabral.

This was followed by the presentation of the revised PEMTA2030 (Strategic and Marketing Plan for Tourism in the Azores) and the Azores Gastronomic Tourism Report, drawn up by Local Food Culture for the Regional Directorate for Tourism. The latter presents the current situation of gastronomy in the Azores as a tourism product while also recommending actions for structuring and improving this product.

The meeting was also attended by three successful companies specialising in gastronomic tours, two of them from the Azores and a third owned by an Azorean descendant who lives in the United States and brings groups to the Azores to learn about Azorean gastronomy.

According to Berta Cabral, this celebration was aimed at "showing the potential of the Azores to continue innovating and diversifying its tourism offer, especially the kind that is accessible all year round and that allows the destination to invest in periods outside the high season. This will contribute to the dispersion of visitors across the nine islands of the archipelago, which is one of the goals set out in PEMTA 2030."

It should be noted that, as part of the World Tourism Day celebrations in the Azores, all those visiting the Tourism Information Offices received a regional product, as a result of the partnership established with the Azores Brand.

The theme chosen for this celebration in the Azores was in line with that launched by the World Tourism Organisation - Green Investments, which highlighted the need for more and better investments aimed at people, the planet and the prosperity of the local community, as an alternative to traditional investments.