Dark Sky Alqueva has recently won second place in the
very competitive and highly regarded United Nations World Tourism Organisation
(UNTWO) Ulysses Award for Innovation in Non-Governmental Organisations.
The Ulysses Awards, commonly known as the
"Oscars" of tourism, are a range of prizes awarded annually by UNTWO,
which has its headquarters in the Spanish capital.
It is essentially teamwork, with contributions from a
number of experts from several municipal authorities, especially Reguengos de
Monsaraz, and from members of the Rota Dark Sky® (Dark Sky® Route), that has
helped Genuineland – Turismo de Aldeia (Village
Tourism) to move this programme forward to its present success. The initiative
was also sponsored by Turismo de Portugal, by the General Directorate for
Agriculture and by the Secretary of State for Tourism, who provided
institutional support for our candidature for the Ulysses Award.
It is notable that Dark Sky® Alqueva was recently identified
by the European Commission as an example of innovation and good practice, as
seen in the document "Enhancing the
competitiveness of tourism in the EU – an evaluation approach to
establishing 20 cases of innovation and good practice."
More recently still, Dark Sky® Alqueva was highlighted
by the prestigious magazine National Geographic as one of the attractions for
visits to the Alentejo in 2014.
With the future of the programme in mind, as well as
future developments in Science and Tourism, The Astro-tourism Society was
created. The mentors to this Society are Apolonia Rodrigues, the creator of the
Dark Sky® Alqueva Programme and president of Genuineland – Village Tourism, and
Eduardo Fayos-Solà, the president of the Ulysses Foundation. The Astro-tourism
Society, with its headquarters in Portugal, is international in scope, and has
as its mission the promotion of a deeper knowledge of and a deeper emotional
response to science, using tourism to achieve this aim.
José Calixto, President of the Municipal Authority of
Reguengos de Monsaraz, states that this award is a "more than justly
deserved" recognition of the Dark Sky® Alqueva Programme.
The Authority, in reaction to this great news for
tourism in the Alentejo, has highlighted "the great degree of work and the
professionalism of Dr Apolónia Rodrigues and of the members of the Dark Sky®
Route as a fundamental factor in promoting the Alentejo and in creating
high-value tourism in the region." José Calixto has also pointed out that
"this award is more than justly deserved and brings to the world's
attention one of the world's finest skies; the Dark Sky® Alqueva Programme now employs
good practice at world-class level, and this fact fills us with pride."
More about Dark Sky® Alqueva
and the Dark Sky® Alqueva Route
A major purpose of Dark Sky® Alqueva, the first place
in the world to be given certification as a Starlight Tourism Destination,
awarded by the Starlight Foundation, is to bring new life to the Alqueva region
after nightfall, enabling visitors to get full enjoyment from this spacious
land under a clear and starry sky, allowing them to wander wherever their
imagination takes them.
Alqueva offers a nocturnal skyscape that has unique
characteristics for a Dark Sky® Reserve.
It is within this context that the Lands of the Great
Lake of Alqueva Partnership was created. It is coordinated by Genuineland –
Village Tourism, the other partners being TGLA – Tourism in the Lands of the
Great Lake of Alqueva, EDIA SA., and CCDRA – the Alentejo Regional Coordination
and Development Commission. The Partnership's aim is to implement the Dark Sky®
Alqueva Programme.
The Dark Sky® Alqueva Programme is a structuring
project concerned with sustainable development, and envisages the European
Commission's Agenda for a Competitive and Sustainable European Tourism being
applied in the council areas of Alandroal, Barrancos, Moura, Mourão, Portel and
Reguengos de Monsaraz. The Programme seeks to respond to challenges such as
seasonality in tourism demand, the impact of tourist traffic, improvements to
the quality of work in the tourism sector, improvements to the quality of
communities faced with change, minimising the impact of both the use of
resources and the production of waste, preserving and increasing the value of
natural and cultural heritage, making the enjoyment of holidays possible for
everyone, and using tourism as a tool for global sustainable development.
Thus, its aim is to create a tourist destination whose
attraction is the enjoyment of a starry sky free of light pollution and to facilitate
the provision of night-time activities for tourists. In order to develop the
Dark Sky® Alqueva Programme, the public-private partnership that coordinates
the project has created the Dark Sky® Alqueva Working Group, which brings
together municipal authorities, companies working in the tourism and energy
sectors, associations, and national and international experts.
Associated with Dark Sky® Alqueva, the Dark Sky® Alqueva
Route is being created to make it possible for tourists to participate in
nocturnal activities such as walking excursions, excursions on horseback,
astronomy and stargazing activities, bird watching and the observation of
nocturnal wildlife, among others. The Dark Sky® Alqueva Route includes a range
of places for accommodating tourists, restaurants, bars and cafes, interpretative
guidebooks and pamphlets, and tourism companies that specialise in providing
for what is coming to be known as "astro-tourism".
At the end of 2011, Dark Sky® Alqueva was certified as
a Starlight Tourism Destination, the first destination in the world to obtain
such certification. This certification, awarded by the Starlight Foundation,
recognises the quality of the night skyscape of the Alqueva area, as well as the
tourism activities related to the sky, and is itself recognised for this purpose
by UNESCO and by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO).
The Starlight Foundation was created in 2007 to put
into force the Declaration in Defence of the Night Sky and the Right to
Starlight, which classifies the night sky as a Scientific, Cultural and
Environmental Heritage of Humanity. The declaration was signed and recognised
by international organisations such as UNESCO, the European Southern
Observatory (ESO) and UNTWO.
