Portugal: 431 Beaches and Marinas Obtained Blue Flags for Ecotourism in 2022

The Blue Flag, which is a certification awarded only to tourism operators that have proved of high environmental and quality standards, was initially launched in 1987 in a collaboration between the European Commission and Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE), AtoZSerwisPlus.pt reports.

“Thirty-five years after the first Blue Flag was hoisted, precisely in the municipality of Cascais, where we are located, we saw the announcement of the awarding of blue flags for 2022 to 393 beaches, 18 marinas, and 20 ecotourism vessels for a total of 431 blue flags awarded,” the Associação Bandeira Azul Europe (ABAE), Jose Archer said.

He also pointed out that this number is almost 15 times higher than 25 years ago, highlighting the progress even more as next season, about 21 more beaches, two marinas, and nine ecotourism boats will fly the Blue Flag.

Furthermore, this year, 102 municipalities have applied for blue flags for over 393 beaches, with Vila Verde, Tabua, and Alandroal applying for the first time and Cascais and Marinha Grande returning to the Blue Flag program.

As per marinas, the Nautical Recreation Centre in Velas, the Lajes do Pico Nautical Recreation Centre, and the Machico Recreational Port have become part of the Blue Flag for the first time, but ecotourism vessels such as boats have marked the highest increases for Blue Flags granted this year. More specifically, nine more vessels from five new operators have obtained the flag, representing all regions except for the Azores.

The beaches in Portugal are distributed as follows:

• North (82)
• Centre (50)
• Tejo (77)
• Alentejo (40)
• Algarve (86)
• Azores (42)
• Madeira (16)

This year, the award was given to 73 coastal beaches and nine river beaches over 15 municipalities in the Northern region, while the Central region received 50 Blue Flags for 31 beaches and 19 river beaches.

In addition, the Tagua area now has 77 distinguished beaches, 63 being coastal and 14 riversides, while the popular Algarve now counts 86 award-winning beaches, with all of them being coastal. Respectively, Azores and Madeira’s archipelagos have 42 and 16 Blue Flag coastal beaches.

Beaches, marinas, and boats in Portugal now represent almost nine per cent of the total of 4,831 blue flags granted to over 50 countries in the world. The country with the most Blue Flags is Spain, with a total of 614 beaches, representing 12.8 per cent of all award-winning beaches and marinas.