Madeira now has two certified companies offering stargazing experiences at sea, a new tourism product that combines night-time sailing with astronomy, maritime history and celestial navigation.
The announcement was made on Wednesday in Funchal during the presentation of the results of the European Twinned by Stars project, held at the headquarters of ACIF-CCIM.
According to Isabel Vieira of ACIF-CCIM, five Madeiran companies took part in the specialist training programme developed under the project. Two have now completed the certification process and are ready to offer the experience commercially, while the remaining three are expected to complete their certification at a later stage.
The excursions will take visitors on night-time voyages where they can learn to identify the major constellations and discover how sailors navigated using the stars long before the invention of modern navigation systems.
The experience also benefits from the darker skies found offshore, where lower levels of light pollution provide ideal conditions for observing the night sky.
“The two companies can now offer this experience because they have acquired all the necessary skills to guide customers through it,” Isabel Vieira said, adding that work on certifying the remaining companies would continue beyond the formal conclusion of the project.
The Twinned by Stars initiative brought together partners from Madeira, the Azores, the Canary Islands and Martinique, aiming to strengthen maritime tourism in the European Union’s outermost regions through innovation, sustainability and specialist training.
Presenting the project’s results, coordinator Yen Lam, from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, explained that the initiative had been developed over approximately 40 months through close collaboration with tourism businesses across the four participating regions.
She said the project focused on three key objectives: identifying the needs of tourism operators and translating them into targeted training programmes, developing innovative marine tourism products, and encouraging the exchange of knowledge and best practice between businesses in the participating regions, particularly in the field of sustainability.
With total funding of around €1 million and involving ten partners from across Europe’s outermost regions, the project aims to demonstrate that innovative, sustainable tourism experiences can enhance the competitiveness of local businesses while encouraging the responsible use of marine resources.
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
Views: 8
