About Us

The growth of the tourism sector must benefit firstly local businesses and the local population

The Azores are rapidly becoming a huge vacation spot. In the last few years the number of tourists and nature enthusiasts visiting the island is steadily growing, at a pace of 11% year over year, and 54,8% over the last 5 years (source SREA). 

The growth of tourism in the Azores in recent years has opened many development opportunities for the islands. Beyond the wealth generated, which has a growing weight in the Azorean GDP, sustainable tourism can also boost human development, education and professional training, infrastructure and transportation. Very importantly  the development of the sustainable tourism sector can also create a greater environmental awareness in local authorities and local population. After all, our unique untouched nature is the product that our clients look for. But for these positive development prospects to come true, the revenue must benefit the local economy. 

This growth, that is expected to increase, will necessarily attract large external companies, with large marketing budgets that will leave very little space for locally owned businesses. Also, the big global tourism portals charge high rates and commissions, making that a substantial part of the money spent by the tourist goes outside of the Azores, instead of benefiting the local economy. 

This is the big question: who will benefit from this growth in tourism? We believe that  Guide to the Azores can make a difference. 

A Sustainable Tourism Marketplace for local businesses 

Small businesses have a limited amount of time and money to spend on marketing, whilst big tour operators have plenty of both. It’s a fact that potential customers rely on the internet to find and choose where to sleep, what to do and how to go around, once they have chosen a place to spend their vacations. The chance of your business being chosen relies on being in the first 5 spots on search engines like Google. If it’s not, the chances of being picked are close to zero. To appear on big online websites, like the well known big booking companies, you’ll have to pay heavy commissions in exchange for visibility. 

Our proposal is to have a website in which all local small businesses can show their listings, directly, like accommodations, tours, activities, services and even prepared packages. Each partner will have their own online shop and all of them will be promoted by a wide reaching, persistent marketing campaign through search engines, social networks and paid online advertising. We will grow together!

More than yet another azorean tourism information website, Guide to the Azores is an actual online shop that offers you the possibility of selling your product directly to the customer, increasing your online exposure and generating more business. 

Huge discount for GTTA Pioneers

For the Startup Phase (First half of 2024, presumably) GTTA will charge you just 4% commission on sales plus card fees (around 2%). After the Startup Phase commissions will raise to 10-12% plus card fees.We will try to stay within the 10% but in any case commit to maintain them significantly lower than the other players like Booking, AirBNB etc..

There are no hidden fees, or monthly fees, nothing. 

So at zero risk and lower costs you can get greater access to the customers you are looking for in a modern, dynamic, well presented and professionally managed website, multiplying the reach of your products. 

How does it work? 

Each partner receives its own online store to place their products, accomodations, activities, services and offers. All products will be catalogued and searchable. 

You will receive direct and personal technical support to set up your shop, create offers, upload content, get periodical reports about sales and visibility. 

The payments from customers will be processed by the GttA Platform using 100% secure channels like Stripe and Paypal, supporting all the major cards including obviously Visa and Mastercard. You will be noticed about the amount minus the commissions for GTTA as soon as the services are completed and/or after checkout for accommodation. To receive the payments by OCEANETWORK, PARTNER will have to invoice the amount minus the agreed GTTA commissions  using an authorised Portuguese invoice software directly to OCEANETWORK. The amount of the pending payments are shown in the “Withdraw” section in PARTNER STORE inside the reserved area of GTTA. To simplify the process, we have set a threshold of 30 days after which, with a single invoice, PARTNER will be able to claim their commissions, which will be paid immediately (via Bank Transfer, to avoid further card fees).

We grow together: The greater visibility, sales and satisfied customers you’ll get from your shop will benefit the entire website and all partners. 

GTTA belongs to OceaNetwork LDA, a company 100% owned by residents who have chosen the Azores (Faial) as their new home. Proceeds will be reinvested exclusively on local projects

Contact us and help us build a successful, fair, Azores based sustainable tourism marketplace, or: