The Regional Secretary for Agriculture and the Environment revealed today that the annual of visitors to environmental and interpretative centres managed by the Region increased from 68 thousand to 108 thousand between 2012 and 2015.
 
"This represents a growth of 60 percent," stressed Luís Neto Viveiros. The government official spoke at the opening of the Pineapple Culture Interpretative Centre, which is installed in a 1920s building that has been fully recovered. It is located in the village of Fajã de Baixo in Ponta Delgada, "the cradle of the first pineapple plantations on the island of São Miguel."
 
The Regional Secretary also revealed that, between January and July this year, there was "again an increase of about 17%" compared to the same period of 2015, which "correspond to 64,474 more visitors only in the first half of this year."
 
Neto Viveiros also highlighted the "significant and sustained annual increase in the number of tourists visiting the centres," stating that, "in the first half of this year, 23% of visitors were from Mainland Portugal, 12% from Germany and 7% from Belgium."
 
With the opening of this space in São Miguel, the Network of Environmental Centres of the Azores will now have 18 infrastructures throughout the archipelago.
 
"According the commitment we made, we also briefly open to the public the House of Fossils on Santa Maria and launch the tender for the construction of the House of Volcanoes on Pico Island," assured the Regional Secretary for the Environment. In this regard, he stressed that these initiatives conclude "the strengthening of the supply available at the beginning of this legislative period, which did not cover all islands."
 
In his speech, Luís Neto Viveiros acknowledged that "the two years between the planting and harvesting of a fruit are, indeed, a long time and result in higher production costs." Nevertheless, he defended that "this apparent competitive disadvantage should not be regarded as a challenge to overcome, but rather as our main competitive advantage."
 
According to the government official, the island of São Miguel produces "a unique fruit in the country and throughout Europe, free of chemicals." The Regional Secretary noted that "organic production methods should be promoted commercially and pineapple growing should be valued locally, from a cultural and gastronomic perspective or even from a tourism perspective."
 
"Thus, we will be fulfilling the dream of Augusto Arruda by linking São Miguel pineapple to tourism," Neto Viveiros said, noting that this "aspiration is also shared by the Government" as "evidenced by opening of the centre to the public."
 
The Regional Secretary stressed that "this is another good example of public initiatives that allow the sustainable development of the Region by combining the promotion of natural and cultural heritage with the improvement in the quality of the regional tourism offer and tourism development."
 
The Pineapple Culture Interpretative Centre, located in the Church Square, aims to disseminate and promote an activity with unique features, which has existed from the first export of pineapples in 1864 to England by industrialist José Bensaúde. Since then, it has become part of the landscape of São Miguel Islands with its glass greenhouses.
 
In order to recognise the importance of genius entrepreneurs such as José Bensaúde and António Borges, who installed the first greenhouse for pineapple growing in 1853, their names were assigned to the rooms that make up this Interpretation Centre.
 
This centre and the information it provides allow visitors to embark on a journey in the history of pineapple growing that is simultaneous with several moments that have marked the history of the world. It intends to disseminate and explain it to the public, from tourists to residents, but also to students, researchers or those who are just curious to learn about this subject, thus becoming a meeting point for the sharing of knowledge and memories.
 
For this purpose, the exhibition contents are interactive and focus on themes, such as the Growth Cycle of Pineapple, Growing Methods, Characteristics and Properties of the Azores Pineapple, Botany and Morphological Characteristics and the role of Pineapples in Local Cuisine, among others.