Perspectives on literary tourism in Portugal

Abstract

This study aims to discuss the relationship between tourism, culture and literature, and to examine how entities that organise literary routes and itineraries in Portugal regard this relationship in the context of the Literary Tourism. The people in charge of three of these entities were interviewed concerning the following areas: objectives of the literary routes and target audience; coordination with other entities; and perspectives on the relationship between Tourism and Culture. The results of these interviews were then compared with those of a previous study carried out by one of the authors, where the entity responsible for organising a literary itinerary was analysed in detail. It is concluded that, at the rhetoric level, there seems to be a considerable openness from the interviewees concerning the touristic use of literary itineraries, particularly as compared to the entity previously studied. However, in practice, the articulation between Tourism and Culture is still not effective in the cases analysed. Therefore, synergies between both areas are yet to be explored by the entities under study.