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Landscape, tourism and local development: the impacts of walkways, viewpoints and swings in the Portuguese hinterland

Principal researcher: Francisco Freire

External principal researcher: António Azevedo (LAB2PT / UMinho)

Research group: Circulation and Place-Making


Keywords

Portugal | Local development | Walkways | Turism

Funding Institution

Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia

Partners

LAB2PT / UMinho (coord.); Universidade de Évora

State

Closed

Start date

01-01-2023

End date

31-12-2023

Reference

EXPL/In2Past/2023/03


Abstract

In recent years, we have witnessed the implementation of walkways, viewpoints and swings throughout the entirety of the national territory, aiming at the development of tourist attractiveness. Both the local impacts as well as the profile of the users of these equipments remains largely unexplored in academic literature. This project aims to fill this gap through the study of the repercussions of these equipments in terms broad terms:
socio-economic, environmental, touristic, cultural, as well as of the socio-demographic profile of the visitors.
Five case studies will be considered - two in the North, one in the Center and two in the Alentejo region of Portugal -, selected according to a variety of criteria, including notoriety, volume of public/private investment, number of visitors, location and the
equipment's expected life cycle.

Team

Aurora Carapinha (Universidade de Évora)

Luís Ferreira (LAB2PT / UMinho)

Full members

Luís Silva

Environment, Sustainability and Ethnography

Rute Sousa Matos (Universidade de Évora)