Azorean Startup Is Shifting The Focus Of Island Visitors

Twenty-one-year-old Duarte Silveira once visited Poland on an Erasmus scholarship and found himself constantly curious. During this trip he traveled far from most other visitor destinations into the mountains between Poland and Slovakia. Once there, he wanted to know all about the local people—how they dressed, what they sang, what they drank. When he returned home to the Portuguese Azorean islands in the Atlantic Ocean, he knew the experience had changed him. Silveira described how.

I think tourist destinations are molding themselves to the tourists, instead of otherwise. They think, ‘Let’s make this super comfortable and let’s speak their language and let’s pretend we are them, for them to feel at home.’ But if you want to feel at home, you stay at home, right?

Silveira and a business partner recently launched a startup travel company named Azooree that caters to visitors to any of nine Azorean islands. They provide guides who delve into and highlight local traditions and culture. The company motto sums up their focus: Simple. Local. Unique.

We are trying to give people a rich experience in a way that they cannot feel like being at home, because they are not at home. They want to see other things, want to experience things they didn’t know. That is what makes us pretty special in this field.

Begun in 2017 and based on the island of São Jorge, Azooree caters to individual budgets of travelers. They work with 13 guides who are located on all nine islands and who provide visitors with on demand assistance (such as phone calls requesting restaurant recommendations) as well as being able to guide trips that emphasize local experiences. These include visits to the only coffee plantation in Europe, gathering and cooking limpets, watching how local ‘volcanic wines’ are made and planting trees to improve island ecology. The company can also cater to visitors who want full time guides.

I realized that people who travel sometimes, not always, do not get the true local experience. Frequently in the Azores they see nature and landscapes, then get back to their country. We want to enrich that experience and show them there is much more to see and experience than the first impression and landscapes, to enhance their appreciation of tradition, history and uniqueness of our islands.

Guides are recruited via social media advertisements, as well as by word of mouth. Each guide is then rated, according to customer inputs, and their pay scale is adjusted accordingly. This also motivates guides to do their best.

Imagine you are visiting India. It would be nice to have a friend there to tell you the best things to do according to your preferences, and what that friend knows about you. We want to be that friend. Our customer care is very high. We basically are not traditional travel agents, which we think are gone because of the internet. It’s very easy for you to book a flight or accommodation or rent a car.

The company does not make commissions from flight or accommodation bookings. Instead, they add value by providing experiences, some of which are exclusive. One of these is visiting a coffee plantation on São Jorge island.

It’s the only coffee plantation in Europe. It only has twenty or thirty plants that were brought during earlier exploration times. People are now getting crazy about this coffee of São Jorge, coffee of the Azores, and paying a lot for a kilogram of coffee. But it’s the only one in Europe, so it’s pretty special. Everyone drinks coffee, but I think probably 90% of people never saw a coffee plant, or coffee bag or the process of how it is made. We try to show people how to produce coffee because it’s a unique experience.

Another local attraction? Limpets. For readers not familiar with coastline creatures, limpets are aquatic snails living in conical shaped shells. They cling robustly to coastline rocks. Apparently the taste of cooked limpets is much like mussels.

For us, here it’s like a basic food we catch and eat. I realize that people from cities would actually find it funny, but rich, to gather them. You go to rocks with a knife to get them and back home put them on a grill with butter, garlic and parsley. It’s great.

Traditional wine making on the Azores can also be included on itineraries. The vineyards of Pico island are unusual: non-trellised vines grow on volcanic soil in small, rock wall surrounded cells. These vineyards have been designated as a UNESCO world heritage site. Some traditional vinification techniques are also still practiced.

People get crazy when they see the vineyards in the grounds on Pico island. But that’s just the landscape. When you go one level deeper you see how people make the wine, and it’s very traditional. We give the opportunity to visitors to participate in these processes. In September they can pick grapes and help make wine.

The company now suggests that each visitor also plant at least one tree while on the islands. They facilitate that activity, having secured planting grounds from the regional government.

We are projecting 100 trips this year. We spoke with the Regional Secretariat for Energy, Environment and Tourism and are able to do this on all nine islands of the Azores.

Most visitors they cater for are European—from Italy, Belgium, Austria and Poland. They also see increasing recent interest from the U.S.

If I visit a place I want to see more and know more about that place. We are working on a way to bring back local traditions, everything that makes us unique. There are a lot of reasons why people should visit the Azores. It’s super, super safe. People here leave their cars and homes unlocked. It’s super calm.

I can attest to this declaration of safety. Ten years ago I first visited the Azores. After having taken a cab from the city of Punta Delgada on São Miguel island to the volcanic lake of Lagoa das Sete Cidades, I spent hours hiking. Afterwards, I found a small bar and asked the bartender/owner if he could assist by phoning for a cab. He declared that he also ran a cab company. He then plucked a set of keys off the counter, said not a word to anyone else, and walked with me outside to his car—leaving the door to his bar fully open. He then drove me back to the city for an unusually low fee, showing nary a concern about theft or security back at his premises.

Silveira continued about island attractions.

People here get time to relax, to get involved with nature in a way that’s not easy—at least from my experience—anywhere else. The whale watching and dolphins and sea life are unique. The cuisine is very rich, especially on the islands of Sao Miguel, Terceira, Pico and Fayal. And there is the feeling when you are here that there is nothing that bothers you. It’s just you and nature.

That, together with a chilled glass of white Azorean wine and a plate of grilled limpets, sounds quite attractive.

This post first appeared on Forbes.com. To see the original, click here.