About us
The Schist Villages Network is a sustainable development project of a regional scope, promoted by ADXTUR — Agência para o Desenvolvimento Turístico das Aldeias do Xisto, in a partnership with 20 counties of the Centre Region and over 100 operators with businesses on this territory. ADXTUR is in this fashion the joining of forces, both public and private, for the promotion of a territory, the criation of wealth through touristic services and the preservation of the culture, the heritage of the rural Inland Portugal. Through a coordinated development of this land, against the human desert, against oblivion.
Spirit of the parnership
The expression in a territory at the same time irregular and of good accesses, but also extremely genuine in its landscapes and its people, became reality from the base: it was at the Municipalities, at the people, local inhabitants and new villagers, artisans and private investors, that the partnership spirit that is now embodies by ADXTUR was discovered. The main strategic lines of the Agency were sustainability of a territory and the promotion of its endogenous values. The Aldeias do Xisto brand represents the offering of tourist services from its associates (hotels, inns, rural lodgings, restaurants, leisure, traditional commerce) articulated through the Leisure Calendar of Aldeias de Xisto. Without losing site of its genetic code: the wellbeing and the quality of life of the local populations.
Differentiated leisure
With the Aldeias do Xisto Network project, this zone of the Centre region starts abandoning the stigma of human desertification, of forest fires, of the private sector's inertia and the lack of local identity. Nowadays this territory offers a differentiated and identifiable brand that promotes the cultural and creative values unique in this territory, directly linked to local traditions. Many of these events become the beginnings of tourist packages, joining services of various partners. The direct contact with the populations and their culture, as well as plainly enjoying the natural landscapes are another attraction of these events, making the Aldeias do Xisto a unique and differentiated tourist destination in Portugal.
Certification and Quality – Seal of Recommendation
The philosophy of ADXTUR's activities has as its main objective the creation of quality models for the various vectors of the Aldeias do Xisto brand. Their realisation will become reality through the creation of a Seal of Recommendation of the Aldeias do Xisto, that will indicate the level of certification and / or quality of a given product or service. The qualification of the tourist resources of the brand already reaches places as diverse as buildings, products, services and leisure with the Aldeias do Xisto brand, gastronomy (Gastronomy Map of the Aldeias do Xisto), artisan / agricultural producers and their respective products, available at the network of Aldeias do Xisto shops and, of course, the technical support to the partners who need it.
It's worth noting that the rules that the Seal of Recommendation of the Aldeias do Xisto represents are adopted by all of the Network's partners. The discipline shared by the partners of the Network having as an objective the certification of human and tourist resources, make of the Aldeia do Xisto brand a model for quality.
A model for Management.
ADXTUR, according to the necessities of the project and the territory, defined together with the public and private partners ways of managing and promoting the brand, that nowadays are formalised in working groups in the following sectors:
Beaches
Environment, Game and Fishing
Territory planning and Urban Regulations
Tourist Products
Network of Aldeias do Xisto shops
Training and Quality - Certification
Communication and Marketing
Development and Strategic Cooperation Projects
Other projects
The project for giving impulse to the Aldeias do Xisto network has already broadened its brand to sub-brands and complimentary projects: the Aldeias do Xisto shop network, that sells local products, the Leisure Calendar of the Aldeias do Xisto, a permanent program of events planned with the local partners, a place for the Norwegian UNESCO, the beach network, that joins some of the most amazing shores on the area. In the Portuguese market, the Aldeias do Xisto brand has been directly responsible for a growth in visitors to the area, as well as serving as a way of securing private investment for the villages.
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