After two years of work, TWINNEDbySTARS continues to move forward: we are already creating and testing new tourism products in the outermost regions, and offering training so that participating companies can continue to grow and improve. In this edition, we also share the experiences of those who are already applying these innovations and tell you what's coming in the next few months.

TWINNEDbySTARS takes a step forward with the presentation of its first two collaborative products, developed together with SMEs from the nautical sector in the outermost regions.

 

The first product is Atlantic Star Adventures, a joint platform for the promotion of nautical experiences linked to stargazing. From night sailing to inter-island sunset routes and constellation observation, companies have co-created unique 2–3 hour proposals that combine navigation and astronomy, enriched with local experiences depending on each region.

 

The second product is Atlantic On-board Internships. This initiative combines training with professional practice, reinforces environmental commitment and creates a network of companies and future professionals in these territories. The short-term internships will be tailored to the activities of each company, offering diverse and practical learning opportunities.

With these two products, TWINNEDbySTARS begins a new phase aimed at connecting destinations, companies, and travellers through sustainable, educational, and memorable experiences at sea.

The TWINNEDbySTARS project is featured in a new episode of OCEAN, the Euronews documentary series produced with the European Commission (DG MARE), broadcasted on 29 July, 2025 in over 160 countries. The report highlights responsible tourism in the outermost regions of the Atlantic, showing nautical businesses from the Canary Islands and Azores and their best practices —from scientifically and educational focused whale-watching, applied technology to underwater heritage observation.

Since March, TWINNEDbySTARS has been offering specialised training for maritime tourism companies, combining theory, practice and online learning. The AI online courses were completed with great interest, with more than 115 participants who receive certificates after completing the course.

The theoretical part of the Marine Starguide course was delivered online to 38 participants. It consisted on a 18-hour programme, and took place between April and May, 2025. The first practical sessions were held on 15 and 16 of June 2025 in the Azores and Madeira, where participating companies put into practice the knowledge acquired during the training and receive their accreditation. The second practical phase will take place in October 1st  in the Canary Islands, and the third on October 14th in Martinique.

The online hydrophone course was delivered on September 24, for participants from the Azores, Madeira and the Canary Islands. The theoretical session will be held soon in Martinique followed by an on site mentoring session on 14 October in the French island. 

All training courses are offered in Spanish, French and Portuguese, with interpreters and fully translated materials, ensuring that all participants can fully access the content and actively participate in each course.

Among TWINNEDbySTARS' initiatives, the project promotes astronomy as a distinctive and high-value tourism resource, encouraging diversification and deseasonalisation of maritime offerings. It also contributes to raising awareness about biodiversity, as learning about the stars helps us understand how artificial light can affect marine and terrestrial life, including ourselves. This approach was highlighted in our collaboration with SEO BirdLife during the Marine Starguide Training course.

As part of this strategy, the project has encouraged businesses to obtain the Starlight Certification, awarded by the Starlight Foundation. This international recognition distinguishes destinations and businesses that protect the night sky and create authentic stargazing experiences, combining science, education, and responsible tourism. Obtaining this certification also opens the door for companies to participate in the Foundation’s Starlight Guide courses, which are different from our Marine Starguide course, more centered on sailing and chartering.

Two of our participating companies have already achieved the certification and completed their FAM trips, putting these new skills into practice.

The first results are already a reality. Keep Sailing has become the first maritime company in the Canary Islands to obtain this prestigious certification by the Fundación Starlight, which until now had only been awarded to eight land-based destinations in the archipelago.

Thanks to the Starlight certification and our Marine Starguide training course, which taught them about the stars at sea, Keep Sailing is enlarging its offer with new astronomical sailing experiences: observing constellations and planets under some of the clearest skies in the world, and learning ancient navigation techniques linked to the stars. Their experiences integrate sustainability, education, and leisure, positioning the Canary Islands as a pioneering region in maritime astro-tourism.

In Madeira, Madeira Sunkiss Sailing has also achieved this distinction, becoming the first maritime company in Madeira and in all of Portugal to receive the certification. Their FAM TRIP offered the same immersive astronomical navigation experience, applying the knowledge from the Marine Starguide training course and showcasing Madeira as a new European reference for maritime astro-tourism.

Xavier Martínez, from Nautic Ocean and a member of the TWINNEDbySTARS consortium, shared his expertise as an astronomy educator, guiding participants through both experiences.

With these achievements, Keep Sailing and Madeira Sunkiss Sailing set an example for other maritime companies, showing how sea, stars, and sustainability can come together to create authentic, high-value experiences.

At the European Maritime Day in Cork, TWINNEDbySTARS organised a key panel on maritime and coastal tourism in the outermost regions, bringing together experts from the sector and showcasing innovative experiences of sustainable ecotourism. Find out how these regions are positioning themselves as living laboratories of sustainability and blue transformation, and what opportunities are opening up for the maritime tourism of the future.

A new study by the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria has been published in the Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism. The study explains the latent demands of whale watching tourists by computing a synthetic index that measure the strength of such demands and captures the natural heterogeneity of individual responses. The index can serve as a decision-making tool for working on progress towards sustainability in whale watching tourism, since it can predict the socioeconomic and travel-related characteristics that drive the various types of whale-watching consumers to be more or less demanding.

After interviewing 490 travellers who were in a whale-watching excursion during their vacations in the Canary Islands, Madeira or the Azores, one significant result suggests that ‘undemanding behaviours’ are “desirable” in whale-watching. The quality of being ‘undemanding’ is attached to tourists who consider the activity’s educational content and responsible management more important than close-up observation of whales.