The Cyclin’ Portugal protocol was signed yesterday, 8th February, at the Aldeias do Xisto Welcome Centre in Lousã. In a ceremony presided over by the Secretary of State for Tourism, Ana Mendes Godinho, ADXTUR - Schist Villages Tourism Development Agency, Central Portugal Tourism and the Portuguese Cycling Federation, signed a document anchored in the following action points:

• Improve the network of specialised routes and facilities.
• Certify routes, facilities and services.
• Work on a calendar for leisure and competitive events.
• Construct an integrated tourism product around cycling.
• Communicating this to the outside world in an expert manner.
• Provide the destination with international events.
• Build a national website bringing together the destinations on offer.
• Integrate the offer into communication and booking channels.

The Aldeias do Xisto “reinvent the land, do away with prejudices and promote joint work”, said the Secretary of State for Tourism in her speech, stressing that these are fundamental qualities for the development of tourism, allowing Cyclin’ Portugal to be transformed into a project of “inter-community cohesion, but also into a saleable product with an international reach”.

Earlier, Paulo Fernandes, ADXTUR Coordinator, had stressed that the Aldeias do Xisto have once again demonstrated that, with this project, they are working in line with major global transformational trends, especially because “they understand, like few others, the relationship between the rural and the urban” . Cyclin’ Portugal’s significance in reducing regional asymmetries and strengthening inter-community cohesion were, in fact, highlighted in both Paulo Fernandes’ speech and in Ana Mendes Godinho’s, and so reflected the strong points of connection between the country’s development strategy and the path that the Aldeias do Xisto have been following in their 10 years of existence as a provincial brand managed by ADXTUR.