🇬🇧 Together for sustainable tourism

The summer season is, throughout the country, a time in which there has been increasing influx of visitors to natural and protected areas. In order to raise awareness among visitors, the Rota Vicentina Association has joined with 11 tourism networks, from the North to the South of Portugal, to sign an invitation to responsible travel.

Taking advantage of an initiative by Turismo de Portugal that united several collaborative tourism networks from the North to the South of Portugal, the Rota Vicentina Association joined these entities to reinforce the invitation to responsible travel, now on a national scale.

Together with ADERE Peneda-Gerês, Aldeias de Montanha, Aldeias do Xisto, Aldeias Históricas de Portugal, Heranças do Alentejo, Lugares da Serra Alentejana, Montanhas Mágicas, Geopark Naturtejo, Rota da Terra Fria Transmontana, Rota do Românico e Termas Centro,  Rota Vicentina wants to work towards a literacy for sustainability, based on the whole idea of collaboration, whether internally through the tourism networks in Portugal, or through the support of tourists.

Supplying yourself with local products, leaving less garbage than you found, respecting the local rhythms of life, investing fair value for quality, seeking information about the region and its particularities and not overloading sensitive places are some of the tips to keep in mind.

During the month of August, these networks of people and territories will show – through social networks – that the future of tourism lies in the preservation of nature and local culture. After all, without nature there is no Nature Tourism, and it is the people (who receive and visit) who can preserve it.

From the North to the South of Portugal, there are many networks that bring together tourist agents – and in several cases, public entities and local communities – who conduct surveys, product structuring and promotion of the territory.
But the realities are really very different and each network works with the set of challenges that best serve the needs of its own respective territory, strategically and at any given time.

This is the biggest asset of these networks: being more organic structures and closer to places and people, more connected to what really matters.