Blue Flag presented the award for its fifteenth season in Puerto Rico
Before a large group of attendees Blue Flag celebrated its fifteen consecutively seasons in the island. The official ceremony, sponsored by the Tourism Company, distinguished three beaches, three sustainable tourism boat companies and one marina that received the flag for the new season. It has been a difficult year not only to Puerto Rico but also to the eastern Caribbean after two major hurricanes affected the zone. The opportunity to highlight and celebrate this achievement is very significant not only to Blue Flag but also for the local community.
With the presence of the municipalities, members of the press, awardees’ staff and friends the flag was presented during the night of the 8th of November with a cocktail in emblematic Old San Juan. The beaches that received the flag were Balneario El Escambrón in San Juan, Balneario de Carolina, for its fifteenth consecutive occasion, and for the first time the Balneario Puerto Nuevo in Vega Baja. Marina Puerto del Rey ratified under the marina’s category, while in the sustainable boating tourism operators both Bellaventuras and East Island Excursions revalidate while a new operator, Island Venture Excursions, emerged. The award application is voluntarily for any beach, marina or tourist boat operator that meets the internationally established criteria.
Blue Flag is the eco certification of quality with greater extension and implantation worldwide. The presence of this award at a local level positions the island as a destination with better offerings for travelers, with beaches and facilities that meet strict criteria that involves ensuring water quality, safe and adequate facilities for its users including the ones with special needs and also environmental education activities to its visitors. Not only does Blue Flag manage to engage beach, marine and boat managers towards sustainable operations and demonstrate their corporate social responsibility, it also directly involves the community that benefits from the educational activities offered during the season.
Preparing the coming season in the Northern Hemisphere: Blue Flag technical meeting in Italy
As every year at the end of October the Blue Flag technical meeting make the new campaign starting. The meeting, hosted by the Ministry of Infrastructures and Transport saw the participation of local referent of Blue Flag awarded sites and also municipalities members that are starting to follow the way of the sustainability set to continuous improvement, as required by the programme.
With more than 260 representatives of the Municipalities present, all the topics related to the Blue Flag Program and the news for 2019 were dealt. Every year during the technical meeting a training session is held, dedicated to the issue of the accessibility of the beach and the services for disabled people for this year. Regulatory and structural aspects were deepened sharing the best practices.”