Tourism

Congress Douro & Porto looks at the long term sustainability of the wine and tourism sector at Porto Customs

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Thinking of Memory and Future, the Congress Douro & Porto looks at the sustainability of the Douro Region, the wineries production and tourism. The event combines a scientific and cultural approach to answer challenges that lay ahead. It kicked off on 19July and will run until 22 July.

Until Thursday, the Douro and its Vineyards are the focus of the Congress Douro & Porto – Memória com Futuro [“Memory with a Future”, free translation]. The Douro wine-growing lands are the testimony of the oldest Wine Demarcated Region in the world. The programme includes thematic conferences, scientific communications and dissemination of a debate themed “Traçar novos rumos – Sustentados na Memória, com os olhos no Futuro”, [“Draw new routes – Supported by Memory, and Forward Looking”, free translation], as well as a presentation of the Hackathon Douro & Porto 2021 and the signing of the Charter for Sustainability of the Demarcated Region of the Douro.

The Congress centre at Porto Customs was the main stage, on 19 July, for the kick off of the initiative of the Porto and Douro Wines Institute. The Congress takes on a mixed format, with online and in-person sessions. The closing session will take place at the Museu do Douro, in Régua.

“We are – Douro and Porto – quintessentially, a wine and tourism destination and the qualities that we afford are plenty: the recognised quality of our wines, the unique landscape, the authenticity and hospitality of our peoples, culture and traditions that resist the test of time, but, at the same time, we are irreverent in a way that makes us project the future”, highlighted the Mayor of Porto, Rui Moreira, on the occasion of the opening of the congress.

“To have such a valuable patrimony means that we have to have the responsibility to promote it and to preserve it, as well as ensuring its sustainability”, added Rui Moreira. “As I see it, that implies the preservation and valuing of its cultural identity, but, at the same time, it also implies the implementation of innovative solutions and technologies, in order to ensure the development of the region, the wellbeing and the quality of life of local communities, the international projection, and the increase of the attractiveness of the destination, seeking to meet the needs and demands of the new generations and anticipating tendencies”, explained Rui Moreira.

The city has contributed to this debate namely by hosting the latestUNWTO Mayors Forum 2021 for Urban Tourism Sustainability early this month. This is, as the Mayor emphasised, “a transversal concern to all sectors and geographies and it requires the involvement of all”.

“Porto City Hall has been contributing, within its competencies, to the promotion of wine tourism in the region, namely as a founding member of the Great Wine Capitals Global Network. I stress the Best Of Wine Tourism Competition, which acknowledges world-class wine entities and services as regards offer”, added Rui Moreira, who also furthered that “it is with immense pride that we see here the impact and recognition that these awards bring to our region and how much the awarded entities prize it.”.

The opening session was also attended by the president of the Porto and Douro Wines Institute, Gilberto Igrejas, the president of the Congress’s scientific commission, Jorge Queiroz, and the State Secretary for the Valorisation of the countryside, Isabel Ferreira. The Minister of agriculture addressed the audience via a video message.

See here more information on the Congress Douro & Porto – Memória com Futuro.