Costa da Morte Tourism Association collaborates with the conference to be held next week in the City Council of Cabana de Bergantiños on the conservation of the skies at night and in which the Starlight Foundation and the Galician Starlight destinations: A Veiga, Islas Atlánticas National Park and the City Council of Muras participate.
The CMAT board of directors, chaired by Mónica Rodríguez, stresses that in 2022 it is committed to promoting surfing, geological tourism and megalithic tourism in a strategy that aims to “involve the whole territory, diversify the offer and deseasonalise demand”.
Costa da Morte Tourism Association (CMAT) has already prepared an “exhaustive report” that argues and defends the candidacy of the Costa da Morte geodestination to obtain the Starlihgt Destination certification. The president of CMAT, Mónica Rodríguez, will symbolically hand over the application pack, which includes the report, to the managing director of the Starlight Foundation, Antonia Varela Pérez, on 14th and 15th July at the conference on ‘Protection of the night sky’ to be held at the Dombate Dolmen Interpretation Centre, in the town council of Cabana de Bergantiños. This was agreed by the CMAT board of directors, which met last Monday (4 July) and was chaired by Mónica Rodríguez. In this meeting also participated the board members Xosé Molino and Xosé Marcote; the CMAT Technical Secretariat team, Marta Rodríguez and Manuel Carnero; and a representation of the Interpretation Centre of the Dolmen of Dombate, integrated by Jorge Mira and Silvia Losada.
Costa da Morte Tourist Association and the Provincial Council of A Coruña are collaborating with the conference organised by the Dombate Dolmen Interpretation Centre on ‘Protection of the night sky, Starlight Foundation and light pollution’. They will take place on 14 and 15 July at the Dombate Dolmen. “This meeting will serve to raise awareness of the importance of night sky conservation”, says CMAT president Mónica Rodríguez, who points out that the event “will also bring together in Cabana de Bergantiños the Galician Starlight destinations: Trevinca, Muras and the Atlantic Islands National Park”. These three Galician locations already certified by the Starlight Foundation “will share their experience and best practices and will explain what the certification has meant for the territory”.
Mónica Rodríguez, who is also the mayoress of Vimianzo, points out that this summit on the protection of the night sky and astronomical tourism in Galicia will serve as the official presentation of the Costa da Morte’s candidacy as a Starlight Destination, a seal that would make this territory made up of 17 municipalities (Cabana de Bergantiños, Camariñas, Carballo, Carnota, Cee, Corcubión, Coristando, Dumbría, Fisterra, A Laracha, Laxe, Malpica, Mazaricos, Muxía, Ponteceso, Vimianzo and Zas) the fourth Starlight Destination in Galicia and the first in the province of A Coruña. The board of directors of the Costa da Morte Tourist Association is convinced that its territory has the “suitability” to join astro-tourism or star tourism. The president of the CMAT once again requested the commitment, as well as the attendance at the conference, of the representatives of the town councils that make up the geodestination and of the public and private agents that form part of the tourism sector of the Costa da Morte.
The meeting of the board of directors of the Costa da Morte Tourist Association also served to evaluate the offers received by the suppliers and awarded the services that will be promoted with the support of the aids of the Diputación de A Coruña and the agreement that will be signed with Turismo de Galicia, dependent on the Xunta de Galicia. The association chaired by Mónica Rodríguez will continue to promote family tourism. Two travelling families with influence in social networks and specialised blogs will travel to Costa da Morte from September onwards.
Surfing, geological tourism and megalithic tourism
The CMAT has also planned to create promotional content linked to the best beaches in the geodestination for surfing, based on the work already carried out by the Provincial Council of A Coruña and related to the candidacy of the Costa da Morte to be a World Surfing Reserve. This initiative aims to identify and promote the wildest beaches of the territory to help position the tourism product ‘Naturally Wild’.
Likewise, Costa da Morte Tourism Association will launch two other campaigns in the second half of 2022, specifically on Geological Tourism and Megalithism in Costa da Morte. “We want all the territory that makes up the geodestination to be represented and for there to be a balance between the different initiatives promoted by CMAT”, recalls Mónica Rodríguez, who points out that “this whole plan for the remainder of 2022 will be promoted by work teams specialised in the different themes and with a deep knowledge of our territory and natural and cultural heritage”. The president recalls once again that the CMAT, with its tourism strategy, aims to “involve the whole territory, diversify the offer and deseasonalise the demand”.
On the other hand, the Costa da Morte Tourism Association is awaiting the resolution of the Tourism Sustainability Plans. CMAT, which presented its project in this field last May and which has a budget of 2.5 million euros for the years 2023, 2024 and 2025, hopes to know the resolution by the end of this summer.
