Turismo cultural, um complemento ao "sol e praia"

Abstract

The regeneration of towns through sports, culture and tourism projects has been a strategic instrument used at an international and national levei by town councils and private entities for re-launching and differentiating their societies.
Cultural heritage has been strongly positioning it self as a strategic element of management and planning of towns.
Tourism in association with cultural heritage offers a large variety of cultural products. However, this relationship between tourism and heritage has been widely questioned.
The sustainabiiity of tourism on the basis of cultural and patrimonial resources assumes the definition of integrated strategies and policies, in which the cultural heritage is seen as an aggregating link of the collective past of a community.
Nowadays, the debates on the management of cultural heritage as a tourist resource point to the following main controversial issues: risk of "commodification", competition of urban space, desertification of historical centres, change into the sector of services, lost of authenticity, sustainabiiity of cultural tourism and cargo capacity.
To face the risks generated by excessive tourist flows there are multiple ways able to be operated on their own or in a complementarily way also known as visitor management techniques.
The basis research has been applied to the cases of Faro and Silves, and it is characterized as an approach by offer. Its results will be presented in a summarised way, being the analysis centred on the cultural heritage management practices regarding tourism in the referred towns, as well as the emerging concerns (in 2001).