www.cses.co.uk www.cses.co.uk 2

Alqueva in Portugal in order to innovate and differentiate the Tourism offer for to became more competitive, developed a tourism product based on the Region’s quality of the night sky for the development of astro-tourism : The Dark Sky Route

The overall basis in the development of the Route was that the professionalism of the entrepreneurs was the basis for the success of the project, for that was necessary to offer continuous training focused on the specificity of the Route: tourist activities done at night based on the quality of the dark sky of the Region

www.cses.co.uk www.cses.co.uk 3

Challenges in respect of skills that small entrepreneurs of the region needed for the success of the project were specially to obtain knowledge: About sustainable development and light pollution mitigation

To develop tourism products

How to change and adapt their tourism offer for tourists who engage in tourism activities during the night

About basics in astronomy

Sky guiding skills

www.cses.co.uk www.cses.co.uk 4

Amongst several training courses offered we could highlight:

Knowledge about the stargazing tourist and equipment required

How to use the technical equipment for sky observations

Sky guiding skills: offered by amateur astronomers with tours to the Portuguese planetary in Lisbon

www.cses.co.uk www.cses.co.uk 5

The key success of the project: The team that developed the project had a strong

background in tourism and development, from undergraduate to PhD and all the work was complemented with experts in the field of astronomy and consumer leaders (eg. Night photographers , amateur astronomers ) in the working segment

The biggest challenge of the project: Training astronomy skills to the tourism entrepreneurs

The training that tourism entrepreneurs need is not offered in the courses of the national Catalogue of Training (ANQEP).