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Promoting tourism businesses for “Salgado de Aveiro” rehabilitation

2019; Elsevier BV; Volume: 29; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.jort.2019.100236

2213-0799

Filomena Martins, André Pedrosa, Margarida Ferreira da Silva, Teresa Fidélis, Marco Antunes, Peter Roebeling,

Coastal and Marine Management

Aveiro lagoon is a wetland that represents a valuable ecosystem; it has a status of Special Protection Area and Site of Community Importance, under the Nature 2000 network. Inside Aveiro lagoon there is a salt production site known as Salgado de Aveiro, which represents an important cultural value for the region. However, the decline of artisanal salt production has resulted in saltpans abandonment and consequently degradation, affecting negatively their natural and cultural values. Saltpans rehabilitation or maintenance is the only way to conserve those values. In Aveiro, the project Sal de Aveiro was developed aiming saltpans rehabilitation through the development of new businesses related with artisanal salt production, aquaculture, or tourism. This study proposes to identify the most suitable tourism and recreation activities for saltpans of Aveiro. Thus, it proposes to develop a qualitative analysis of Salgado de Aveiro in terms of legal framework, tourism activities under development, saltpans physical conditions, location and accesses as well as activities developed in other salt production sites or wetlands. As a result, the authors identified a widely ranges of tourism and recreation potential activities to be developed in the saltpans of Aveiro. The activities were divided in different categories according with their core product: artisanal salt production; biodiversity; aquaculture; health and wellbeing; water sports; other outdoor recreation activities; and accommodation. Although, the economic viability and the environmental impacts of those activities should be addressed in future researches.