The Business End

lends itself to intensive agriculture, which forms a major segment of the region’s economy.

Key exports in this category include cereals like wheat and maize, vegetables and fruit such as pineapple and grapes. The vineyards of Pico Island were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2004, highlighting the important status of winemaking here.

São Miguel is revered for its tea production and is home to two of the only tea plantations in the whole of Europe. Both sites are open to visitors

THE AZORES CLIMATE

who can explore the teamaking process.

Asides food and drink production, tourism represents a growing market. The liberalisation of airspace over the islands of São Miguel and Terceira occurred in March 2015, which led to the number of passengers arriving at Azores airports increasing by 21.2 percent versus the previous year.

More than 1.5 million passengers arrived in 2017, an increase of 18.47 percent on 2016 in part driven by an uptick in cruise ship stopovers. In 2017, 86 cruise ships passed through alongside more than 4,000 recreational boating vessels.

EMEO: What are some of the key issues and topics trending in the tourism sector at the moment? FC:

Considering the importance of