Editorial of January
A little over a year ago, at the “A World for Travel” forum in Évora, the French philosopher and futurist Marc Halévy said categorically: we are today in a paradigm shift like those our society experiences every 500 year cycle. Our capitalist system pours poison through every crack, but the resistance to change overcomes all the evidence. Science has shown a thousand times that our lifestyle is unsustainable, but politics doesn’t want to pay the price and prefer to procrastinate.
What role does tourism play in this change? We can say that tourism can be to today’s society as fantasy is to real life. In the same way that the “retreat” model exploded for its “reality bubble” effect, tourism has the potential to offer the experience of a better world. “Experience feeling nature, breathing in silence, eating what you see being harvested, hiking for pleasure, learning a new lifestyle.” For a few days, a few times a year. Who knows what might happen? What has been happening is more than obvious. More and more people want to extend what they feel on vacation into their daily lives. Cities want to be green, bikeable, with urban gardens and community neighborhoods. The countryside wants to be cultivated, diverse, with cultural dynamics in the villages and producers’ markets.
And as much as it costs the industry and many of us, it is not necessarily on the other side of the world that this impact happens. If what we are looking for is a stimulus to transformation, to our evolution as individuals, families, groups, it can happen right next door if we are vigilant and available.
Around here, in southwestern lands, we are preparing another “Semana ID”. A kind of queen of our costumes. A challenge for us, for the resident community, for the lovers of Vicentina Coast, and for those curious about the new models for the new paradigm.
It’s not a festival, it doesn’t have headliners, it doesn’t transform this region into anything it isn’t all year round. It is 7 days to visit, think and celebrate the Southwest. During one year, we prepare this accumulation of events and activities. We challenge those we know to prepare the best for this cauldron of relics. The best of this region, as far as tourism is concerned. We will be testing, experimenting, inspiring and believing in a better world, in better tourism.
Come on! Save the date and we will soon share the details of the program. But trust us: it is a rich set of small and delicious moments. Just like life.
Presided over the Rota Vicentina Association for 12 years and now leads Strategic Relations and Innovation — which is to say, a focus on cooperation and creativity.
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