Activities

Sada hosted the First Conference on Sustainable Tourism in the Mariñas Coruñesas e Terras do Mandeo Biosphere Reserve, aimed at finding out about the progress made in green tourism to date and where the Mariñas Coruñesas e Terras do Mandeo Biosphere Reserve should be heading. The meeting, which lasted two days, brought together all the agents involved in the development of this territory, from public bodies to entrepreneurs, as well as experts. In this sense, all the agents involved in the development of the territory declared by UNESCO as a “Marinas Coruñesas y Terras del Mandeo” Biosphere Reserve, considered the commitment to “green” and quality tourism to be a key element.

The first day was attended by local and regional public authorities in an event attended by the Director of Tourism of Galicia, Nava Castro, the president of the Board of Directors of the Biosphere Reserve, José Antonio Santiso Miramontes, Xosé Regueira, deputy for heritage and tourism of the Provincial Council of A Coruña, and Xosé Lois Suárez Becerra, councillor of the City Council of Sada, as well as a national representative, Amanda Guzmán, manager of the Ecotourism Club in Spain, who provided examples of good practices in the field of ecotourism. In addition, the need for urban-rural cooperation was very present, such as, for example, the good steps being taken in the Marinas Coruñesas Biosphere Reserve to market its agri-food products included in its Quality Mark in the markets of the city of A Coruña, relating it to a quality product, socially responsible and environmentally sustainable. In addition, the need to increase the collaboration of the Biosphere Reserve with the City Council of A Coruña was highlighted in order to improve the joint positioning and promotion of this territory in different ways, such as in the development of family, ornithological and scientific tourism…

Representatives of the University School of Tourism of A Coruña (CENP- UDC), for their part, carried out a synthesis of sociology in the field of sustainable tourism on the second day and highlighted success stories and business models that are differentiating themselves in this field, For example, Llovizna, Ideas Peregrinas, Uvepositivo, companies that participated to explain their entrepreneurship process and what they are doing in terms of tourism today and what they are planning for the future.

Among the main conclusions of this first meeting, the organisers highlight the need to involve all the social agents and actors in the decision making process and in the design of sustainable products, as well as the effort to enhance the value of local products, to increase profits in the territory and to raise awareness of the heritage and traditional culture, actions that will increase visitor satisfaction and the positive vision of this tourism model for the local population, who must be involved in the tourism model.