“Ecopistas e Produtos Turísticos”, Workshop and technical visit

“Ecopistas e Produtos Turísticos” , Viseu (Portugal) 7 July 2016

Programa

09:30 – Sessão boas vindas – CIM VISEU DÃO LAFÕES

10:00 – Apresentação do projeto “Greenways Outdoor” – Mercedes Muñoz. Directora Associação Europeia de Vias Verdes.

10:30 – Turismo do Centro – Producto turístico vinculado a Ecopistas no Centro de Portugal Pedro Machado. Presidente Turismo Centro de Portugal,

11:00 – “Generando producto turístico en la Vía verde del Aceite” Antonio Camacho Subbética Bikes Friends, (Spain)

11:30- “Ecopistas: Recurso Acessível a Todos” – Emilia Dias, from the APPACDM of Viseu-Associação Portuguesa de Pais e Amigos do Cidadão Deficiente Mental

12:00 – Os Bikotel e a Estruturação do Produto – Pedro Pedrosa empresa A2Z

12:15 – Network Meeting – Instituições Publicas e empresariais. “Serviços em torno da Ecopista do Dão”

13:00 – Almoço livre

17:00 – Visita técnica à ECOPISTA DO DÃO

20:00 – Jantar convívio

Welcome words:

The President da Entidade Regional de Tourism do Centro de Portugal (TCP), Pedro Machado, showed the support given to active tourism and nature; the Ecopista do Dão is an important resource that must be accompanied by a tourism product offer, allowing to host and to take full advantage of this infrastructure by the tourists; also he referred to the growth of tourism enterprises in the central region of Portugal.

Odette Paiva, Councilor for tourism of the Câmara Municipal de Viseu defended the connection of Ecopista with the coast and called for support to Tourism Center in this regard.

The Executive Secretary of the CIM VDL Nuno Martinho, stressed the importance of Ecopista as a gateway to Viseu, and showed commitment to the project and development of tourism products linked to Ecopista do Dao. They are developing tourism product for the entire territory of the CIM, linked to the Ecopista.

Presentations:

Mercedes Muñoz: Director of EGWA introduced the Greenways Outdoor project and the available material to support businesses and public administrations to create tourism product taking into account the interests of tourists. She supported the request to extend the Ecopista by the tourism council of Viseu and called public-private partnership to generate tourism product around the Ecopista Dao and get the greatest economic benefit for the area.

From EGWA we consider this demand an excellent news: the Ecopista Dão has just under 50 km and the connection to the coast to Aveiro is about 80 Km, so total length could achieve some 130 km. The continuity of the greenway would attract long distance cyclists and would prolong the stay in the area.

Antonio Camacho: DxOcio, presented his experience as a microenterprise and encouraged the participants to generate tourism products and collaborate with other complementary companies to improve the offer; Antonio insisted on the need to overcome the local vision and to enlarge the business perspective.

Pedro Pedrosa A2Z Adventures: he referred himself to the increasing trend of the cycle tourism and the necessity to count with “cycle friendly” establishments to receive these new tourists.

Emilia Dias, from the APPACDM of Viseu-Associação Portuguesa de Pais e Amigos do Cidadão Deficiente Mental explained the great interest of the Ecopista do Dao for the group of disabled people who are engaged in the association and their activities, as well as their families. The Ecopista is for them an exceptional resource that they can fully enjoy; she also highlighted the quality and safety of the Dao’ ecopista for the development of outdoor activities.

Some 35 stakeholders from public and private sector attended the conference and had the opportunity to exchange about tourism product creation with the speakers; in the afternoon a techical visit was organized to know technical details of the greenway, provided by the team in charge of the supervision and maintenance from the CIM VDL.

Participants at the Technical visit to the Ecopista do Dão, guided by the team in charge of the supervision and maintenance from the CIM VDL.