Gran Canaria's tourist attractions have a new attraction. The Starlight Foundation has awarded Keep Sailing the first Canary Islands astronomical navigation award as part of the Twinned by Stars award, which facilitates, incentivizes, and supports initiatives to diversify the nautical and marine tourism offering in the Canary Islands, the Azores, Madeira, and Martinique.
Keep Sailing, with two boats based in the Pasito Blanco marina, will offer nighttime stargazing tours and astronomy events. In addition to being aimed at tourists, it is also available to residents, schools, universities, astronomical research centers, and nautical schools, with the intention of complementing their educational programs.
This Thursday, the company launched its first complimentary astronomical navigation trip on two boats from the newly certified company. This trip will recreate the astronomical navigation experience that will soon be commercially available. Professionals from Gran Canaria Tourism and the Gran Canaria Blue association, both of which are collaborating with this initiative, participated in this trip.
Keep Sailing is a company specializing in personalized nautical experiences, combining luxury, adventure, and comfort. It offers boat rentals and exclusive services through its sailing club. Although the Canary Islands have eight certified Starlight destinations, until now no maritime company had been certified in the archipelago. Astronomy from the Canary Islands sea is priceless, thanks to the extremely low light pollution just offshore, which creates optimal conditions for observing stars and constellations.
This milestone has been made possible thanks to the Starlight Foundation, part of the Canary Islands Institute of Astrophysics (IAC) and represented by its director, Antonia Varela. The Starlight Foundation's main objectives are the protection of the night sky, the cultural dissemination of astronomy, and sustainable local economic development through astrotourism, promoting initiatives that highlight the astronomical wealth of certified territories, such as this certification.
Twinned by Stars has been selected as a flagship project, a distinction that recognizes emblematic projects that support the sustainable blue economy in the outermost marine basins of the European Union. Its budget is close to one million euros.
This is a European project coordinated by the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria's TIDES (Nautic Ocean) program, along with Nautic Ocean and partners such as the Canary Islands Maritime Cluster, Cetecima, the Funchal Marina, the Madeira Chamber of Commerce, the Regional Directorate of Maritime Policy of the Government of the Azores, the Territorial Collectivity of Martinique, Consulta Europa, and the European Boating Industry.
