Susan Costa & Adriana Oliveira of SATA with Marlene Gaspar Rocha of the Azores Promotion Board
Alitours' Ana Fonseca, Ruben Vieira, Tania Veca & Pina Venditti
An interested crowd at the Exploration Fitness table!
Chicago may be the Windy City and Australia is the Land Down Under, but last week I learned that the Azores are The Belly Button of The Atlantic. And what a funny and appropriate nickname for this group of 9 islands set in mid-Atlantic, 1,500 km west of their mother country Portugal.
Also what a surprising destination, as Azorean enthusiast Rui Amen told a group of some 70 travel agents, combining 3 oceanside golf courses with some of Europe’s last tea plantations, geo-thermally cooked meals (think pre-historic Crock Pot) and acres of vineyards.
With over 500 years of history, the Azores are also great for clients interested in architecture, festivals and culture. Another plus for the islands are their temperate climate, averaging 24â° in summer and 15â° in winter, and the surrounding waters are so warm that scuba diving is one of its biggest attractions and you can whale-watch year round.
Clearly a great destination for the active client, the Azores would be ideal for the most adventurous on your list, thanks to Exploration Fitness. This Toronto-based firm offers a weeklong itinerary which combines rapelling with mountain biking and rafting with a sleepover in the crater of a volcano. Interestingly, their $3,375 (excluding air from Canada) tour price includes 8 weeks with a local trainer in your home town to ensure you’ll be 6-pack fit when you arrive.
Other tour operators featuring the Azores include Alitours and Collette. And, even lift is surprisingly easy: local carrier SATA offers weekly service in winter from Toronto on their A310s – which will increase to daily service next summer – and weekly service in summer from Montreal. Just think, your clients could be in Europe in 5 hours! No wonder, as officials proudly pointed out, that tourism from Canada is up 14% year-over-year.
And for the client who has been to mainland Portugal and thinks there’s no need for them to visit the Azores? “Oh, they should! They have to!” enthuses Marlene Gaspar Rocha, Market Manager for the Promotion Board. “It’s totally different, untouched nature, safe – and as active or relaxing as they want.”
