Tenerife to lead new “EU Sky Route” astrotourism project, a key “niche market”

[Janet]

no, G ... but you can pass these two links as examples of what I myself was reporting.

Europa press

HostelSur

[Guanche]

Thanks Janet that was one of the things he was asking for






Now how do I put them on an e-mail

[Janet]

Guanche, I've just had THIS ... official press release announcement of the project from the Cabildo itself.

[Guanche]

Thanks Janet, I sent (I hope) those links off to my man in the EU so I'm just waiting for a reply. The thing is, as he said, this may come under a diffrent name when it get to the EU and its a case of marrying 'EU Sky route' to whatever name it has in Brussels.

[Janet]

Tenerife is hosting the first meeting of EUSky Route this week, the Cabildo has announced. President Alonso said that the pioneering project "will bring new possibilities for leisure and active tourism, economic development and job creation through the revaluation of astronomical heritage and associated resources to further enhance the destination's diversification from the sun, sea and sand model."

CEO of Turismo de Tenerife, Miguel Ángel Santos, stressed the quality of Tenerife's night sky, "confirmed by the recent granting of the Starlight Certification to Teide and Tenerife's peaks, and the fact that we have the Canary Islands Institute of Astrophysics and the observatories at Izaña where prestigious national and international scientists are working."

The EUSky Route project envisages creating sky watching and star gazing routes in participating regions, and targeting them to different markets, whether families, groups, the retired. It also aims to incorporate new professional profiles into cultural tourism and promote the development of a mobility scheme based on sustainability and respect for the environment.

Taking part in this week's meeting with Tenerife Tourism are the National Astrophysics Institute of Cagliari (INAF) and the Institute of Regional Economic Trends (TENDER ), both from Italy; the Institute for Social Development of Lisbon (IDS) from Portugal; the Centre for Science and Museum of Technology of Thessaloniki (NOESIS) from Greece; consultancy firm Gantcho Popov (GPOPOV) from Bulgaria;, the Regional Tourism Organization of Subcarpathia (PROT) from Poland; and the Valencia Agency of Tourism (AVT) from Spain. The group arrived on the island on Monday and were welcomed by President Alonso.

All will be involved in a series of intense work sessions including a visit to the Teide National Park, the Izaña Observatory telescopes and, of course, stargazing after dark. During the meetings an agenda has been outlined for the different activities to be developed for creating the astronomy routes within the next 18 months. During this period, members of the project will resolve issues such as funding and technical resources, as well as available infrastructure and those that need to be created; designing tour packages and their contents according to traveller behaviour and market circumstances as well as the involvement of the other participants. JA

[Guanche]

I think its getting a little clearer to me now as to what they hope to achieve with all this. I can only assume that they need so many EU countries to take part to obtain EU funding not only for this meeting/Junket but for the following tours. I can only assume it would appeal to schools as educational trips and special intrest groups. But how many of those there are? Still scratching my head though

[Janet]

part of the upmarket, niche market, plan ... 

[Guanche]

Well I hope so. As I say I can see what their trying to do. But it would need the participation of hotels and a number of other private businesses. Maybe I'm guilty of seeing corruption and EU waste on the horizon instead of the stars

[Guanche]

Well me old mate from the EU Pedro just sent me an e-mail. It would appear that this 'Sky route' is one of four projects set up in 2012 each concerned with tourism. The maximum amount awarded to each of these projects is €147,343,78ct which should equate to 75% of the expenses. Didn't say where the other 25% was coming from.
The EU has not done any study on the project and cannot supply any information on the development as its set to run for 18 months and only officially started in Nov 2013. Which is fair enough.
Pedro directed me to the Project coordinator for any more info, but unfortunately didn't tell me who it is. So keep watching.

[Janet]

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The second meeting of the EU Sky Route project was held recently in Thessalonica and represented, the Tenerife Cabildo says, a further step towards its objective of creating astrotourism routes in participating territories, namely Poland, Portugal, Greece, Bulgaria, Italy and Spain. The project is financed by the European Commission. Tenerife president Carlos Alonso stressed the importance of the project, which he said would allow the island further to develop this key tourism sector which benefits from the perfect dark-sky conditions to be found here. The Cabildo is delighted, of course, that this whole projects fits in so well with the forthcoming Starmus festival (link), which will see a galaxy of household names arrive here, including Stephen Hawking, Richard Dawkins, Rick Wakeman and Brian May.

At the recent meeting, the initial proposals were developed with Greece, for example, aiming to link its astrotourism with its mythological heritage, or in the case of Italy, with its Roman and Etruscan archaeology and history. In Tenerife, the tourism authorities are seeking to combine astrotourism with the already-existing "Volcanes de vida" to create a fusion of vulcanology and astronomy in the Teide national park where the environment itself becomes a key player in the experience. The official wording is fanciful, but why should it not be? Anyone who has been up Teide in the day, will have had a taste of the awesome experience, and by night, that is multiplied manyfold.

Further project development will be carried out individually now, and the next meeting should be held in April 2015. JA