Tour guides-educators as heralds of change: Oeiras’ Pombal palace as example

Abstract

The article recalls the authors’ experience as certified Guides and lecturers at a higher institute, considering the pioneering visits performed with graduate students over the years to Oeiras’ Pombal palace. Brochu and Merriman (2002) sustain each generation of interpreters enriches the legacy of its predecessors by expanding the science and enriching the art. Pastorelli (2003) adds a good storyteller must set its audience into a trance, thus allowing them to dive into the story, while Tilden (1997) stresses the educational side of interpretation linked to meaning, the use of objects and instructive media. Indeed, mental time travel is key to the clients’ understanding of a site’s evolving identity when complemented with the teasing of the visitors’ senses. A theoretical approach on interpretation opens this document. The historic presentation and approach to the main areas of the venue ensue, followed by shortcomings and suggestions for the future tourist management of the palace and gardens. The empirical proposition also includes the references consulted to its completion. Scientific theory allied to professional practice and the perception of the underlying human factors during the education of Tourism Information students are pivotal to co-create the future of Tourism.