The Azores destination is going to be marketed by TUI Germany, the country's largest tour operator, during the mid and high seasons next year, announced the Regional Secretary of the Economy on Friday.

Vasco Cordeiro spoke at the opening of two pedestrian trails on Santa Maria, considering the inclusion of the Azores in the tourism offer provided by Tui Germany as "another evidence of the work the Government of the Azores has been developing by promoting the growth in international markets as a strategy for compensating for the expected drop in the national market during next year, which has already been felt this year."

In addition to the announcement made on Friday, another other measures have been developed by the Regional Secretariat for the Economy, such as the flight connections between the Region and Belgium in 2012, operated by JETAIR, or the inclusion of the Azores in the marketing circuit of the second largest distribution network in Germany, Thomas Cook.

According to Vasco Cordeiro, this entry into international markets also marks a new "strategy in the support granted to operators, which is no longer awarded in accordance to their number, but to the number of tourists who actually visit the Region.”

The trails opened on Friday also evidence "the work that has been developed so that the Azores may to assert themselves as a Nature destination and, in this context, these pedestrian trails are a vital product."

These efforts, according to the Regional Secretary for the Economy, "have been achieving results as demonstrated by the classification of the Azores, by the North American portal BootsAll Indie Travel, as one of the top eight global destinations for hiking."

In addition to the 66 trails across the archipelago, the two opened on Santa Maria "contribute to enhance the island's tourism offer, providing better conditions to its assertion in this sector."