Since 2018, the Administration of the Ports of Douro, Leixões and Viana do Castelo (APDL), which manages the route, has celebrated Douro Day on the 19th of October the date that marks the first navigation on this river.

On the 19th of October, 1990, the waterway was opened along its entire length by a tourist vessel that arrived in Barca d'Alva.

“This is an opportunity for APDL to celebrate the VND, together with the Community, with an extensive program of activities for the whole family and a wider range of age groups”, an APDL source told Lusa news agency today.

This year's edition takes place at Cais da Régua, district of Vila Real, and the program includes navigation baptisms (on mini cruises), guided visits to the Douro Museum, family games, inflatable parks, face painting and street entertainment.

There will also be performances by the singing group Rabelos do Douro, the children's music band Indy Trupe, the Rancho Folclórica Recreativo de Godim, the bass drum group Zés P'reiras The program also includes the delivery of the APDL 2023 school award.

When asked about the tourist year on this river, APDL said that the “navigability performance of the Douro continues to grow", highlighting that it maintains “river tourism above 20,000 stopovers and registers a record number of passengers in all variants, surpassing a million passengers by the month of September”.

Tourists can travel the Douro on cruises that make the trip to the same reservoir, on day cruises, on hotel boats and on pleasure boats.

During 2022, the Via Navegável do Douro reached 1,095,249 passengers, a significant increase compared to 2021 (279,151) and 2020 (226,333), years marked by the Covid-19 pandemic.

APDL highlighted that it continues to promote the improvement of VND conditions, having programmed a set of investments linked to security, namely the expansion of the video surveillance system for monitoring and controlling traffic, the implementation of access control in ports and piers and the Security and Emergency Plan.

On the other hand, reaffirming its commitment to the sustainability of its port operations on the waterway, the manager added that it is promoting the electrification of the docks to allow ships to be powered, the digitization of processes and the improvement of the waste collection service.