This week, the municipality of Lagos flew the Blue Flag on the six beaches of the municipality: Luz, Porto de Mós, Camilo, D. None, Praia da Potata and Meia Praia.
The display of this award and the winning of several awards – the most recent being the “QualityCoast Gold Award – certify the destination «Lagos dos Descobrimentos» as a tourist destination of excellence in terms of environmental quality, cultural heritage and its local identity .
This important Quality Award, instituted by the Blue Flag Association of Europe, is a guarantee of the quality of the municipality's bathing water, its support infrastructure, as well as the information and environmental awareness actions carried out in the municipality of Lagos.
In addition to the Blue Flag, this year, Lagos is once again sporting the Accessible Beach Flag – Praia para Todos, on four of these beaches (more specifically Luz, Porto de Mós, Praia da Batata and Meia Praia). to citizens with limited mobility, namely through reserved parking next to the beach and ramps suitable for wheelchairs.
The raising of the Blue Flag ceremony, which took place this week, was attended by the entire municipal executive, the representative of the Administration of the Hydrographic Region of the Algarve (ARH), the Captain of the Port of Lagos, the sponsors and partners of the campaign. environmental awareness and several other guests.
The first flag to be hoisted was at Praia da Luz, where the Support Center for People with Disabilities was visited, which supports users of the Education Center for Unadapted Children. This was followed by the beaches of Porto de Mós, Camilo, D. Ana, Batata and Meia Praia.
During the course, the deputy president of the municipality António Marreiros, who holds the responsibility for the Environment, took the opportunity to talk a little about the “history” of the Blue Flag, recalling the course of this award in the last 25 years.
At the beginning, 11 criteria were outlined, being “currently necessary to comply with 32 to be entitled to display this flag, which clearly demonstrates all the care we take in the bathing areas of Lagos”.
For the past 11 years, Lagos has always been flying the Blue Flag, having reached its full in 2010 with the achievement of this quality award for all the bathing areas in Lagos.
By the way, it should be noted that the Campaign “Lagos in the Summer Wave – Blue Flag 2012”, organized by the Municipality of Lagos, has the sponsorship of the brands Lipton and Olá (Unilever), from several hotel units in the municipality (Hotel Tivoli Lagos, Hotel Vila Galé Lagos, Marina de Lagos and Marina Club, Cascade Resort, Yellow Lagos Meia Praia), Onyria Palmares, Espiche Golf Village, Camping Turiscampo, Intermarché and MultiServices, a service provider in the area of urban cleaning and cleaning the beaches.
At the Hotel Vila Galé Lagos (one of the campaign's sponsors) all aspects involving summer-related issues in Lagos were presented, both from the campaign itself and from safety on the beaches.
To talk about this last item, the Captain of the Port of Lagos and Portimão and the local Commander of the Maritime Police took the floor. According to Commander Cruz Martins, the device that will be on the beaches will be similar to that of last year, that is, Navy personnel will be on the ground daily patrolling the beaches, in collaboration with the maritime police and accompanied by the necessary material means (All-terrain vehicles equipped with lifesaving material and which are operated by marines who hold the lifeguard course). This vehicle will mainly patrol the Meia Praia area, which is not under a concession.
Also on this beach, where there are 12 bathing facilities, the Integrated Rescue Plan will be in force, “through which it is possible to reduce the number of lifeguards to be hired by concessionaires and reinforce the articulation with other means of security – such as watchtowers, three personal watercraft, moto 4 and rescue boats – which complement and reinforce the existing fixed resources in each concession”, said the captain.
Concluding the campaign presentation, the mayor Júlio Barroso spoke, recalling “the importance that the municipality gives to the Blue Flag”, and underlining the fact that “this Blue Flag Campaign is the result of the joint action of the Chamber, with others council entities and all sponsors of this initiative, which has been taking place for over a decade and is a way of publicly showing the work that has been developed in this area”.
The mayor took the opportunity to recall that the tourist destination “Lagos dos Descobrimentos” “has been consecutively awarded and mentioned on social networks”, and the last distinction the municipality received was the “QualityCoast Gold Award – which certifies Lagos as a tourist destination of reference in terms of environmental quality, cultural heritage and its local identity.
Júlio Barroso also wanted to reinforce the idea that “businessmen are spending and investing a lot in Lagos, helping to transform this municipality into a world reference as a tourist destination”, congratulating the hotels present in the municipality.
Finally, the president also spoke about the summer entertainment, this year taking place in Lagos with the title “Summer of Arts and Traditions”, which will feature “a lot of musical entertainment, street entertainment, exhibitions and nautical sports”.
Information, entertainment and environmental awareness activities will be present on the beaches of Lagos during the coming months of July and August.
The main recipients of animation activities are children and young people, but there will also be initiatives for other age groups, such as the “Lagos é Natural” Digital Photography Contest, which invites a closer look and enables participants to win tourist accommodation awards. More detailed information about this contest is available on the municipality's website at www.cm-lagos.pt.
All information about this campaign can be consulted through the Blue Agenda edited by CML, available at customer service points and at the Blue Flag information kiosk.
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