An itinerary, on land, for boaters seeking the municipality of Vila do Bispo. This is, in short, the aim of the internet guide created within the framework of the European project “Odyssea” and which was thepresented to the public for the first time at the Seminar Places of Globalization, which a few days ago took place at the Cultural Center of Vila do Bispo.
Artur de Jesus, a history graduate and senior technician in the municipality, presented this virtual guide which aims to «provide those at sea with more information about what is on land».
The guide wants to provide information to navigators, namely of sailing vessels, which cross the seas between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, and which will have information that will motivate them to stop at the small port of Baleeira, in Sagres, and then visit across the county.
Organized in a discovery itinerary and on four scales – nautical, cultural, flavors and nature – the guide contains information “validated by a local work group”, which included technicians from the Vila do Bispo Council itself (flavors), but also a nautical school, a maritime-tourism company, a nature guide and, in terms of heritage, the Regional Directorate of Culture of the Algarve.
For now, the guide, already available on the internet by clicking here and presented in five languages – Portuguese, English, Spanish, French and German -, it has «very simple content», in a «project that will grow and is not watertight. At any time, more information can be entered», explained Artur de Jesus.
The guide also offers information on accommodation, restaurants, events, a map of Vila do Bispo (and Sagres? And Raposeira?), and various information, such as useful contacts.
The main area of this website is, however, the «Mar & Terra Odyssea Itinerary, with audio and video commentary», which proposes «a selection of the most beautiful cultural and heritage landscapes of Vila do Bispo».
Organized into two areas - Tours & Itineraries and Narrated Landscapes from the Sea – this Itinerary takes boaters who visit the county (and anyone else who wants to) to discover the «13 visual buoys, the 13 points of interest already inventoried along the coast of Vila do Bispo », which can be «converted in a few seconds, with one click, into a navigation chart».
And so, in "Landscapes Narrated from the Sea", detailed information appears, referenced in a map and a chart, for example, about the actions of the German submarine U-35 in 1917, in World War I, which sank, in a single day, several ships, of which there are still underwater archaeological remains, or on the French warship «Ócean», which sank in 1759 near the beach of Boca do Rio, during a naval battle, or even about flora, fauna (birds and cetaceans), geology (the Ponta do Telheiro) and even paleontology (the dinosaur footprints of Salema), among many other interesting aspects to visit on the coast of Vila do Bispo.
The guide, explained Artur de Jesus at the Seminar on Places of Globalization, is still being finalized and can be enriched with more content and more details. "We are making every effort to have everything ready by the end of 2019", he added.
Although the main focus of the work is to provide information to navigators, who will thus have more reasons to stay a few days in the port of Baleeira and in the municipality of Vila do Bispo, increasing their stay, the information can also be downloaded and used «by whom it is on land».
Responding to the question posed by a guide of the nature present at the audience, the technician from the Vila do Bispo Council also revealed that it is also planned to "edit all this information in a paper book".
«The main objective of the Odyssea project is to make virtual guides, on the internet. But neither on land nor at sea can we be 100% sure that we can access the internet, because technologies fail. Therefore, we also thought about editing this guide in a paper book».
Until the end of 2019, which is the time frame for the execution of this European project, some things will still have to be improved in the Vila do Bispo Council Guide – such as the Portuguese used, which, in certain places on the portal, is not the one of Portugal, but that of Brazil. An example? When the information is downloaded to the smartphone, using a QR Code, words such as “cell phone” or “scanned” appear in the explanation. Or the word contact that appears, in various areas of the site, written as «contact»… Or when the tablet is called «tableta»…
The project "Odyssea Blue Heritage – the Maritime Cultural Itinerary in Vila do Bispo» is funded by INTERREG V. Its main purpose is to «implement a common ecotourism model based on the capitalization of good European practices to enhance the economic potential and sustainable use of the cultural and natural heritage of coastal, maritime and rural territories» .
Its about a cross-border cooperation project between the Council of Tourism and Sports of the Junta de Andalucía, the Diputación de Huelva, the Algarve Tourism Region and the Municipalities of Faro, Lagos, Vila do Bispo and Mértola, developed under the INTERREG V program – Spain and Portugal (POCTEP) 2014-2020.
With this project, it is intended to «enhance partner port and coastal cities as destinations of excellence, based on the identity of the territory and the historical-cultural, material, immaterial, archaeological and natural heritage as an economic base, through the common brand Odyssea ».
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