Government continues to invest in the qualification of the Azores destination, ensures Marta Guerreiro
The Regional Secretary for Energy, Environment and Tourism assured in Ponta Delgada that the Government will "continue working to maintain the features that make the Azores different and special" in the context of world tourism.
Marta Guerreiro spoke Saturday at the closing of the national final of "Expresso BPI Golf Cup," stressing that the Azores have managed to combine the beauty of their landscapes with a unique environmental quality in a very peculiar way, to which the Azoreans have added the component of tourism."
In her speech, she pointed out that the most recent data on the first 10 months of 2016 reveal that “more than 1,150,000 passengers landed in Azorean airports." This represents a cumulative growth of 22% over the same period in 2015, which had already registered a growth of 19% over the previous year. According to her, the Government of the Azores contributed to a major qualitative and quantitative leap in terms of air accessibility to the Region.
The Regional Secretary also mentioned that the consolidation of the figures registered in recent years is due to the existing instability in some of the usual holiday destinations for European and American tourists, the security of the Azores destination and the improvement of air accessibility, with new links between the archipelago and other destinations.
In this regard, she stressed that "the Regional Government, in close coordination with other economic agents, should reconcile the interests of harmonious economic and social development with the necessary sustainability of natural resources, particularly land and sea resources."
Marta Guerreiro noted that the establishment of this Regional Secretariat is intended to accomplish this goal in order to ensure the best conditions for the private sector to take action by diversifying and qualifying the regional tourism offer. Moreover, it should be also attentive to the impact of tourism growth and work towards the defence of environmental heritage.