Regional Director says talking about creative tourism is, above all, thinking about the future
The Regional Director for Tourism stressed that "talking about creative tourism is, above all, thinking about the future." In fact, it goes beyond the traditional and is inspired by "human and cultural capital" to create new tourism products that call for the involvement of tourists in local life in order to "attract new market niches and meet new trends in international demand."
“Creative tourism is mainly focused on the exchange between local communities and tourists, stimulating interaction and sharing experiences with a view to improving the tourism offer,” said Marlene Damião.
“We have to be more creative and increasingly value what is ours and the best we have: the excellence of our territory as a whole, our landscapes, our products, our services, our traditions and our people," added the government official.
"In stimulating our creativity in tourism and creating new ways of travelling in the archipelago, we realise that we still have so much to give to those who visit us and we gain new momentum for the future," said the Regional Director.
Marlene Damião spoke Tuesday in Ponta Delgada at the presentation of the "Creatour Azores" project, carried out by the Azores Tourism Observatory, which aims to encourage and motivate the regional tourism industry to explore new approaches to tourist experiences that the Azores destination can offer to its visitors.
"We have to invest in the ability to differentiate ourselves," Marlene Damião said, pointing out that "this is the only way to increase the level of excellence and differentiate our tourism offer," thus making us "more competitive."
On the occasion, the Regional Director stressed that creative tourism "has everything to do with the principles of sustainability that have guided the development of tourism in the Region and that have enabled us to project ourselves as Nature Tourism Destination."
"If it were not for these sustainability imperatives, we would probably not have been the first and only archipelago in the world to be certified as a sustainable tourist destination by EarthCheck certifier under the strict criteria of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council," said Marlene Damião.