President of the Government highlights potential of nature tourism in mitigating seasonality
The President of the Government opened today the Grand Route of Graciosa, the fourth in the Azores. It falls within the strategy towards the promotion of the tourism offer linked to Nature Tourism in order to minimise the seasonality of this sector in the Region.
According to Vasco Cordeiro, the new Grand Route "represents the fulfilment of a commitment that has been made with the aim of improving and diversifying the regional tourism offer, highlighting the contribution of Nature Tourism to the reduction of seasonality."
With an extension of approximately 40 kilometres, the Grand Route of Graciosa joins the Grand Routes that already exist on Faial, Santa Maria and São Jorge, and to the future route of Flores.
On the second day of the statutory visit to Graciosa, the President of the Government highlighted the significant investment in the hiking trails of the archipelago, where there are eighty approved trails covering distance over 800 km.
"The importance of these trails has contributed to the significant growth of tourism in recent times," said Vasco Cordeiro. The President of the Government pointed out the example of Graciosa, where the number of overnight stays grew more than 20 percent between January and April 2016, compared to the same period of time last year.
On this island, there has been a growth of about 60.5 percent in the number of overnight stays since the beginning of the legislature, said the President of the Government. He pointed out that the efforts to mitigate seasonality are reflected in the implementation of projects such as the Grande Route opened today.
In his speech, Vasco Cordeiro said the Government intends to withdraw more benefits from the classification of the islands as "Biosphere Reserve" insofar as this statute is in perfect symbiosis with the strategy defined for the Azores tourism.
In this context, the President of the Government emphasised birdwatching, underwater tourism and hiking trails as the foundations of this strategy, from which it will be possible to create the conditions for the strengthening and development of this sector on Graciosa.