Coastal and maritime tourism in madeira is Indissociable of tourism as a whole because both sea and land activities are very geographically close and complementary. As it is, the tourism destiny of Madeira has this complementarity as one of the positive distinguishing aspects for attracting guests, in line with a wide range of experiences that use both interfaces.
The most traditional incoming markets for tourism in Madeira are Germany and the United Kingdom. This scenario has been changing in the last ten years where incoming markets diversification has brought other fluxes from Europe, like Spain, France and the Scandinavian markets, and, with less expression, from markets outside Europe, like USA, Brazil, Russia and east Asian markets.
In the purely maritime activities, like those performed by the maritime services companies, that include boat riding, cetaceans sightseeing, scuba diving, sport fishing, surf, etc., we can identify a growing trend both in the number of services provided and the number of tourist operators performing it. Although seasonality causes fluctuations in touristic maritime activities, most of tourism services are available all year and, in general, they are more dependent upon the conditions of the ocean and weather than those connected with seasonality. For this scenario, the warmer sea waters all year round, relatively to the northerner territories in mainland Europe, and the mild climate, specially the mild winters, are undoubtedly fundamental.
Cruise liners is another significant activity under maritime tourism representing in 2017, 293 port calls, of which 289 were done in the port of Funchal, and 537 352 passengers in transit.
In Madeira archipelago, the economic significance of aquiculture is small, being the production in open sea restricted to south coast of Madeira island, where two companies produce seabream. After an initial experience, the activity restarted in 2005.
The production oscillated between 169 tonnes in 2011, and 570 tonnes in 2013. The regional market consumes an average of 150 tonnes, per year, of local aquiculture production. Since 2001, the “Centro de Maricultura da Calheta”, a research centre, produces juvenile fish for aquiculture, provides training and technical support to private fish farming companies, and develops research, namely on the production of local species.
Madeira archipelago is highly dependent on freight maritime transport. Cruise activity is important to the tourism sector in Madeira. The maritime transport is strategic to connect the inhabited islands.
Madeira has two ports in the south coast. The Caniçal port is for freight traffic and Funchal port for touristic purposes, being also used by the ferry that connects the islands. Small boat marinas and ports exist around Madeira for recreational and fishing activities. The north coast sea makes difficult the operation of larger port facilities. Porto Santo has a port facility for freight and passenger transport, being strategic for tourism.
The Cruise ships had a rapid growing market. In the RAM. between 2004 and 2018. with an average of 573 per year. the cruise ships have an important contribution for the tourism sector. particularly for the local commerce and touristic services in Funchal.
The Madeira archipelago is highly dependent on fossil fuels (79% primary energy, 2018). The electricity generation from renewables is limited by the small and isolated electricity systems, which demands significative investments in energy storage and smart grids, to guaranty the quality and security of supply.
The dependence on maritime and air transports, and land mobility limited on road transports, make challenging the energy mix diversification for transports (50% final energy, 2018).
The islands isolation, fragmentation and small size entails high investments in redundancy infrastructures, namely for electricity generation and energy storage, and increases the energy system vulnerability to climate change.
Short description
Although references to Madeira’s archipelago date from the roman empire, where they may be known as the Isles of Blest, official discover of the islands were dated to 1419 when captains João Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vaz Teixeira were luckily driven to...
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Local Working group
The following partners are involved in the study of Madeira: AGÊNCIA REGIONAL DA ENERGIA E AMBIENTE DA REGIAO AUTÓNOMA DA MADEIRA – (AREAM) The following local stakeholders have declared their interest in participating in the local study of Madeira in the...
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Climate and risks
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