The Sustainable Flight project aims to gather contributions from the Azorean population (residents and those in the diaspora) regarding the aspects they consider most important to the memories of what it was like to live, be, or be raised in the Azores.
We are going through a moment in which there is hesitation to question and talk about the loss of quality of life in Portuguese lands subject to intense visitation.
The definition of Sustainability mainly implies Maintaining and Preserving, from access to public spaces for recreational use (which are confined and not so abundant compared to the total area of each island, due to exposure to the sea and waves and the demanding orography of some coastal strips), to water resources, food fishing resources (which serve as a banner for attracting tourism, but distorting the issue of their bioavailability and access), and ending with the free movement of Azoreans, because they have to compete at high prices for a seat on a plane to visit their relatives.
While we witness the near confinement of the local population and loss of access to the elements identified above, it is urgent to inform Civil Society, and also the consumer/visitor (which we all have been and sometimes will be), that increasing the infrastructure and accessibility of a region with high natural heritage will not solve the problem, risking loss of identity and irreversible deterioration and impoverishment of one of the last regions in the world to be assaulted by uncontrolled tourism.