Putting our people first is Living's key to success, and fun is at the heart of everything we do as a company.

That's why the Living Stars of the Year event was and will consistently be one of the best nights of the year on our family calendar, and the 2023 event was no exception. Every year, we bring people together from across the Living Group to recognize and celebrate some of the remarkable things we've achieved.

This was the first of many Living Stars Of The Year, the energy in the room was fantastic and you really feel how these people bring our values ​​to life every day. A star was awarded for each Living business area and for each department of the Living Group, thus recognizing the people who promoted and made a difference with distinction.

The values ​​that we defend at Living were also celebrated, such as diversity and inclusion, we celebrated our social causes, because in this month of April we beat the 100 thousand meals donated to needy and homeless people in Portugal under the cover of our LivingTourianos com causa 1 program for 1, where we donate a meal for each participant in our tours.

It was also a time to celebrate our concern for sustainability because, in addition to having already started the energy transition of our fleets that we use in guided tours, reducing water consumption by reducing the daily exterior washes of all fleets, we also decided to plant 3 thousand trees in the pine forest of Leiria, to offset the CO2 emissions of our fleets still burning.

The awardees were inspiring and well deserved. Obviously, all of our 150 Stars deserved to be distinguished, as they all performed exceptionally well and it would never be too much to hand over the 150 stars, but in compensation this April we awarded the 15th Salary prize to all 150 stars, referring to the results achieved in 2022.

All the Leaders had a lot of doubts in choosing their Stars, as well as myself, it was quite difficult for me to distinguish just one Leader - this year Vitor Bezerra, our Commercial Director, who performed excellently during the year 2022, in the reconstruction and creation after pandemic of the new commercial department, having strategically and surgically planned our commercial area, taking the lead in the super-fast recovery, surpassing the results of 2019, with distinction.

Living Group is full of so many inspiring people – many of whom have been part of the family for over a decade and it is always wonderful to reconnect with them.

At this year's party that simultaneously celebrates our 19 years of Living Tours existence, I spoke with a large majority of the team, from back office teams, to teams of Interpreter Guides from our operation of regular shared and private tours, from our transfers, walking tours and tuk tuks, from our receptive agencies in Porto and Lisbon, as well as our Online e-commerce platform, from the accounting and financial area, to the areas of human resources, sustainability, SEO, marketing and technology, of quality and the Living training academy.

All of them with so many rich stories that don't make us forget the unique, authentic and extraordinary experiences that we create and promote to our guests and everyone with whom we relate.