Baiona

The Parador Nacional de Baiona hosted the European nautical tourism congress Galicia, Atlantic Destination, in which representatives of some twenty clubs and nautical associations from the old continent debated over the weekend about the situation and future challenges of a sector that the participants agreed to highlight that it has a great potential to turn Galicia into a reference for European sailors.
In this sense, the director of Tourism of Galicia, who inaugurated the event, highlighted that 8 out of every 10 boats sailing in the Galician estuaries come from Europe. Galicia – he said – has managed to ensure that the nautical facilities receive more visitors each year, and the effort must now be focused on more qualitative than quantitative aspects,”highlighted the president of Portos de Galicia, José Juan Durán, while the Monte Real Club de Yates, which organizes the event organized by the hand of Tourism of Galicia, Portos de Galicia and the city council of Baiona, intervened its president,
Challenges for the future
The inaugural session highlighted the improvements registered in Galician ports and marinas over the last few years, being today an important offer for the whole of Europe. However, the need to improve connections to reach Galicia on direct flights from many of the countries of origin of possible transits was also stressed, as was the fact that in some marinas the staff barely spoke English.
Other improvement actions presented at the congress also include the need to implement complementary infrastructures and services for ports and marinas; and to make tourism proposals better known in order to reach as many people as possible.
Representatives of twenty sailing clubs and associations from all over Europe, from Germany, Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal and the United Kingdom, also had the opportunity to get to know first-hand two of the proposals that seek to promote nautical tourism in Galicia: the mini-cruises along the estuaries and the European project Ecodestin, in addition to making a tour of the Arousa estuary.