The fledgling 'Algarve Cooking Vacations' scheme has won 'Best Project in 2018' in the International Brand category at the 2018 Travel Food Awards organised by the Italian Tourism Press Association.
"This recognition comes at the right moment as the Algarve’s tourist authority has just presented a study that calls for the creation of culinary and wine tourism routes in the Algarve. It is really very gratifying when we see our work valued by an external and independent body. It is a team project, a partnership with many people involved and for this they are all to be congratulated," said the new head of the tourist board, João Fernandes.
This was the first edition of the Travel Food Awards at which several initiatives and international events related to gastronomic tourism were evaluated by a jury composed of Italian journalists specialising in gastronomy.
The criteria were originality, degree of involvement of local communities, respect for the environment, economic sustainability and communication strategy.
For the Algarve, the Italian tourist market was up 25% in the first half of the year
Algarve Cooking Vacations was launched in September 2017 with a grant of €500,000 to ‘combat seasonality’ and “to produce a study, training workshops with experts, the creation of programmes and routes, the publication of a cookbook and the internal and external promotion of this new tourism product."
See also: '€500,000 Algarve food and wine tourism project'
