Next December 16, 2021, at 11:00 in Spain, will take place the Closing Day of the RAIA TERMAL Project. The event will present the results of this initiative, which seeks to develop a Galician-Portuguese border tourist destination. To this end, the natural, cultural, thermal, gastronomic and heritage potential of the area has been highlighted through the joint management, promotion and marketing of the destination.

After the opening, at 11:15 will take place the talk “European Funds: overview of the next POCTEP”, followed by “Objectives / results of the project Raia Termal: One destination, two countries”, at 11:35. At 12:00 there will be a round table to take stock of the project and discuss proposals for the future. After the closing, an “Alvarinho de honra” will be served at 13:00.

The complete program can be consulted below. The event will be held at Termas de Melgaço, but you can access the streaming of the event through the following link or through its YouTube channel.

• A new international project, said the provincial president, Manuel Baltar, “to disseminate our heritage, when in times of pandemic and post-pandemic like these, people are looking for well-being, disconnection and nature, values that we have in the province of Ourense and Portugal”.
• A promotional bus will travel more than 1,500 kilometres and will visit more than 25 points during the next ten days, incorporating as novelties a digital tourism office and the participation of university students with scholarships in the Erasmus Rural plan.

Ourense, 8 September 2021.- The Provincial Council of Ourense today launched an initiative to promote tourism in the cross-border territory Ourense-North Portugal, which, under the name “Raia Termal en route”, will promote the values and resources of this area through a promotional bus that will travel more than 1,500 kilometres and will visit more than 25 points during the next ten days, incorporating as novelties a digital tourism office and the participation of university students with scholarships in the “Erasmus Rural” plan. A new international project, said the president of the Provincial Council, Manuel Baltar, “to disseminate our heritage, when in times of pandemic and post-pandemic like these, people are looking for well-being, disconnection and nature, values that we have in the province of Ourense and Portugal”.

In the framework of the “Raia Termal” programme, financed by the European FEDER funds through the Interreg programme, “the bus that starts today from Ourense will allow us to value the territory and its thermal heritage – added Baltar – delving into the historical, cultural, social and natural links that we have between Ourense and Portugal as brother towns”. In this sense, he was enough, the bus will not only visit the five municipalities of the province and northern Portugal that integrate the European programme – Lobios, Bande, Muíños, Cortegada, Melgaço and Terras de Bato – “but will travel to other important capitals such as Puerto, Vigo, A Coruña or Santiago de Compostela”. The tour will end in Ourense, coinciding with the celebration of the Termatalia fair on 16 and 17 September.

The provincial president also highlighted another of the novelties that includes this initiative, such as the participation of the twenty university graduates who were granted with the Erasmus Rural bags, “aimed at young people to study and disseminate our territory and its resources reinforcing the attention to tourists, an initiative that is a direct consequence of another project financed by the European Social Fund, the EmpredOU programme, so that more than one hundred young men and women under 35 years launched projects of self-employment or entrepreneurship in their municipality of residence, helping to fix population, employment and wealth in the rural areas”.

“Raia Termal en route” incorporates a second novelty: a digital tourist office that through QR codes will allow to download from a map to a collection of postcards with the most important tourist resources of the territory, through promotional videos or even a comic set in the cross-border municipalities that make up the project. However, the most important digital element lies in the possibility of making it easier for spas, companies and local administrations to digitally transform their offer, allowing travellers to book and buy tourist services in the cross-border area online.

The Raia Termal project, which will be present at upcoming trade fairs in the sector, aims to enhance the value of natural areas and promote quality national and international thermal tourism in the areas related to leisure, health and heritage, favouring the economic activity of the neighbouring towns of Ourense and northern Portugal. Co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Interreg Programme, in addition to the aforementioned municipalities also participate as partners the Diputación de Ourense and the Confederación Hidrográfica Miño-Sil.

Source: Depo Ourense

• The Board of Directors, meeting via videoconference, assessed the execution and established the deadlines for completing the pending work before September 30, 2021.
• It also began to assess a formula for the partners, once the project is completed, to commit to supervise the actions implemented, at least for 3 years.

• Both countries present the Common Strategy on Cross-Border Development, which prioritizes cross-border and multi-country projects as vectors for building social, economic and environmental resilience on a European scale
• The Strategy regulates the figure of the cross-border worker with the creation of a specific document
• The two countries will promote a global agreement on the conservation of Iberian biodiversity
• A joint analysis of the possibilities of Spanish-Portuguese tax harmonisation will be promoted, as well as instruments and tax incentives to promote economic activity on both sides of the border

Unlike most border areas in the European Union, the cross-border territories between Spain and Portugal – 1,214 kilometres of land border – suffer from regressive demographic dynamics, with loss of population and ageing. Reversing this situation is key to revitalising these territories, fixing their population and reducing their demographic, social and economic vulnerability, which requires policies and strategies adapted to these territories to take advantage of the momentum of European reconstruction plans

See the press release of the 31st Spanish-Portuguese Summit

The partners of the Raia Termal project held on Wednesday 23rd September, a new coordination meeting of the project, to monitor the progress of the project.

In this meeting the following points were discussed, among others:

• The possible participation of the project in the Fair INTUR 2020 that will take place between 20 and 22 November in Valladolid.
• The progress of all the project’s material works; at this point, it is worth noting that all but two actions are already underway.
• During the summer months, those in charge of the Provincial Council worked on the specifications for the tender for the intangible investment in advertising the RAIA TERMAL product and in a few days the administrative processing of the tender procedure will begin.

Finally, they agreed to call a meeting of the Board of Directors before the end of the year, the initial forecast being for November; at this meeting they will give an account of the analysis of the projects carried out and the state of the pending issues. This analysis will be the basis for evaluating all the actions contained in the RaiaTermal project.

The partners of the Raia Termal Project held on Tuesday, 30th June, their 21st meeting of the Management and Coordination Unit (UGC) by videoconference.

In this meeting the partners have analyzed the state of the material and immaterial investments evaluating the extension of some actions.

The County Council of Ourense is planning to resume the work of the “EDAR of Muiños” in July; in relation to the “motorhome area” planned in Bande, it is expected to be put out to tender next week. In addition, they have announced that soon they will tender a contract to acquire screens with internet connection that will be located in Bande, Muiños and Cortegada.

Similarly, the CHMS hopes to put out to tender in the coming weeks the work on the “footbridge connection on the River Caldo”, in Lobios.

In addition, the partners have evaluated the current situation of the tourism sector in Spain and Portugal with regard to the fight against Covid-19. In this sense it has been agreed to retake, in an immediate way, the promotion and commercialization campaign of the destination and the tourist products of the mark “Raia Termal” to contribute to improve the current situation of the tourist sector of the Raian territory.

The CHMS took advantage of the meeting to communicate that it had just signed the resumption of the work “Removable weir on the river Caldo” as well as the immediate award of the work “Cycle from the recreational/thermal area to the Roteiro Termal da Devesa”. On the other hand, Terras de Bouro advanced that the execution of its work advances to the expected rhythm.

Likewise, and given the special relevance that the immaterial actions have for the whole project, there was a debate on the promotion proposals that could be developed within the framework of the same one.