Autor(es):
Fonseca, Fernando Pereira da 
; Ramos, Rui A. R.
Data: 2008
Identificador Persistente: http://hdl.handle.net/1822/18435
Origem: RepositóriUM - Universidade do Minho
Assunto(s): Tourism; Rural areas; Governance; Strategic planning; Territorial marketing; Almeida
Descrição
Nowadays in Portugal some rural areas are facing the challenges resulting from the reform of
traditional economic activities and new markets’ characteristics. These challenges promote
new local development policies that result in mobilising local resources and in expanding
rural activities. In this context, tourism is considered, in many cases, a key sector for the
economic growth of these territories. In rural areas tourism can include different types of
tourist activities, such as community-based tourism, ecotourism, cultural tourism, adventure
tourism, guest house, backpacking, riding and agro-tourism. Developing tourism in rural areas
increases participation of the poor and brings wider benefits, for instance, involving
ownership and territorial management.
The aim of this paper is to explore strategies for expanding tourism in a peripheral rural
region of Portugal, the Municipality of Almeida. It draws on an overview of the likely
challenges and motivations involved in promoting tourism. Almeida, a poor rural and
peripheral Portuguese territory, is the case study presented to validate that tourist resources
can emerge as a local potentiality to the territorial development. Through a prospective
analysis based on stakeholder’s interviews, tourism was classified as the most capable activity
to revert the current regressive trend and so, different objectives and actions were explored in
order to promote tourist activity in Almeida. The economic potential of tourism as a key
sector of growth and development in Almeida is based on the competitive advantages that the
region has in its cultural and natural resources. Tourist activities in Almeida also complement
a worldwide trend towards alternative tourism, signalling a break away from the perception of
sun, sea and sand as representative of the ideal holiday in Portugal. At the same time, the prospective analysis revealed the urgent need of a higher cooperation between local (and
regional) entities, through a new model of governance.
