Nestled in the Alentejo region, the village of Cumeada has long embraced the poetry of silence, the vastness of nature, and the darkness of the night sky. As the headquarters of the Dark Sky® Alqueva, the world’s first Starlight Tourism Destination, our community has worked for over a decade to show that sustainable rural tourism can flourish under the stars.
When we first launched the Dark Sky® Alqueva destination in 2007, our mission was both ambitious and simple: protect the nigh sky, celebrate the cosmos, and generate new possibilities for the people who live in this region, already comprising eleven municipalities in Portugal and thirteen in Spain representing 10.000,00 square km. The skies above Cumeada and the whole Dark Sky® Alqueva were already a treasure, with low level of light pollution, but their protection required a shared vision. Regional and local farmers and tourism entrepreneurs, residents, and public authorities came together with Dark Sky Association to be part of a model that has since inspired similar projects across Europe.
The environmental benefits of dark sky protection are well documented, from reducing carbon emissions to preserving biodiversity, including positive impacts at economical and health levels. But in Cumeada, the impact goes further. Stargazing has sparked a renewed sense of pride in our cultural heritage and identity. It has created local jobs, empowered young people, and offered visitors a different kind of luxury: the luxury of stillness, time, and connection.
Our Observatory in Cumeada is an open window to the Universe revealing the beauty that is hidden from our human eyes, but still waiting to be captured in different wavelengths and shared with the world, showing that the cosmos is anything but black. A vast and enriched colourful ocean of glowing hydrogen gas that sometimes can bring us new discoveries yet to be revealed, in a dance between science, philosophy and art. Our images have been contributing to scientific papers, astronomy magazines and books, but each night under the starry dark skies of Alqueva is an open highway for new frontiers to unveiling the new light, only reachable in the most beautiful deep darkness capable of connecting us to the most distant stars, galaxies and nebulae.
Receiving the Best Tourism Villages recognition from UN Tourism in 2021 was both an honor and a validation of our path. It increased international visibility to a place where innovation coexists with tradition, and it opened new opportunities for partnerships and capacity-building for the Dark Sky® and residents. More importantly, it reminded our community that rural voices matter, and that sustainable development is not a future goal, but a living process in a complex society.
In Cumeada, silence is not the absence of sound, but a presence. It allows us to hear the wind through the olive trees, the hum of the stars above us, and the stories told by our guides who mix astronomy with storytelling turning it as an experience that stay with us. Visitors often describe their experience in our Observatory as “transformative”, and we believe it’s because they rediscover something fundamental: our human connection to the universe.
As we look to the future, our aim is to deepen this connection, not only through technological innovation in astrotourism but by reinforcing the values that made this journey possible: collaboration, care for the land its culture and authenticity, and a shared awe for the night sky.
About the Author:
Apolónia Rodrigues is founder and creator of the destination brand Dark Sky and Dark Sky Alqueva and is currently the President of the Dark Sky Association. She also coordinates the European Network of Places of Peace since 2010.
Between 2005 and 2014, Apolónia was a member of the Tourism Sustainability Group (TSG), a group that created the Agenda for the European Sustainable and Competitive Tourism, where she took on the co-leadership of the Working Indicators Group. Between 2014 and 2016 she was a member of ETIS POOL of Experts, a group created by DG Grow, European Commission, to develop and test the European System of Tourism Indicators for sustainable practices and destination management.
(Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the contributor and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or views of UN Tourism or any affiliated organizations.)
