Speech delivered by the Regional Secretary for Transport, Tourism and Energy - Communication

Secretaria Regional dos Transportes, Turismo e Energia

Full text of the speech delivered today by the Regional Secretary for Transport, Tourism and Energy, Mário Mota Borges, at the presentation of the Transport Portal in Ponta Delgada:

“We are here today to present the Azores Transport Portal in a week marking the end of a journey of many months of work that has resulted to the latest version we are presenting here.

The original purposes have been adjusted to the circumstances of last year as well as to the programme of the XIII Government of the Azores in the field of Transport, Tourism and Energy.

Like everything that may bring value, in a sustainable manner, this Portal has several purposes. The main one is to facilitate the movement of visitors between the mainland and any island of the Azorean archipelago.

Besides this main purpose, directed at those who don't know the islands, there are other purposes related to the reality of the archipelago. One concerns the improvement of and use of intermodality in transport within the archipelago, while the other concerns the monitoring of the available resources and infrastructures as well as their operational effectiveness. The ultimate goal is to contribute to island cohesion, unite what is dispersed, achieve economic efficiency in the archipelago, and maintain and improve the quality of life of all Azoreans.

We, the Azoreans and residents of these islands, have an idea of the means of transport available to us. However, many have a limited idea of the whole and its integration. And if our vision is sometimes limited, it is even more limited for those who are far away but willing to visit us or who are visiting us.

The lack of use of information integration tools in this area has been evident for some time. We live in a society that is increasingly designated as the "information society" and it is not justifiable to be cut off from it when it can be useful to us. The advantage of its use can be found in various aspects and, in this context, speed is one of these aspects that is also worth emphasising. The speed with which a journey between two points, passing through several intermediaries points and using various means of regular transport, is simulated in an Intermodal movement. Here we are talking about transport but we are also talking about time. Not everyone has the same amount of time available, but most people try to accommodate their actions in the time they have available. As they say, time is money. 

In this "information society," Azoreans and visitors have become used to the ease of getting information and the assurance that this ease brings. The decision to travel in one particular direction or another, apart from necessity, stems from the trust and safety that such a decision entails. With regard to tourism, but also in other areas, in the competitive world in which we live, it is necessary to offer that trust to those who become aware of the existence of our tourism products, or others, so that they make decisions that are attractive to them and that are convenient for us. A portal like this can be a bridge that creates trust and puts access to every corner of our islands at the distance of half a dozen "clicks." Such a portal demonstrates the so-called intermodality of passenger transport in the archipelago as well as between the islands and mainland Europe. Hence, with this portal, it will be easier to know, simulate and trace routes from the world to the Azores and from the Azores to the world.

In addition to the reasons mentioned above for the creation of this Portal, there are still other reasons that may cross over with the promotion of the use of regular public land transport. At a time when the cost of energy used in transport continues to rise, it is convenient to rationalise its use. Finding new ways to approach and use public transport is a wise move. Besides this energy issue, there is also the issue of mitigating the constraints of the high tourist season, namely the lack of rental cars and the high density of vehicles in the most attractive tourist spots.

As for the creation of the Portal, the Cybermap representative will give more details below. But, before that, I would like to provide some more information that, regarding its creation and use,  are relevant:

- The Portal is based on two types of information "mechanisms": an automatic one (for air and sea travel) and an analogue or manual one (for land travel);

- For air transport, the Portal is supported by a GDS (Global Distribution System - like Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport [which combines Apollo, Galileo and Worldspan]) and is automatically updated according to its own pace. In the near future, it may be possible to obtain an "Access point" from ANA Aeroportos for greater precision in flight schedules at the airports operated by this company.

- As for regular passenger vessels, the portal is directly connected to Atlanticoline's portal and the schedules are automatically adjusted.

- For land transport, the routes and schedules were provided by the concessionary companies and uploaded to the portal by Cybermap. The summer and winter timetables and routes will be changed for each period upon indication of the system manager.

All this set is built on Google Maps, through the Google Transit platform, presenting a simple and intuitive graphic image of the solutions to the connection problem posed by each user.

Finally, I would like to point out that this is not a final product. This version is still in its early days of use and, naturally, it will require improvements. After this one, other complementary ones may follow and one of them may be in the field of freight transport.

Thank you for your presence here at this presentation and I hope that this portal will produce good results for us Azoreans and for those visiting us.”