The axis Vila Real/Régua/Lamego as a dilemma for action

The aim of this paper is to discuss how medium-sized cities can network effectively in order to attract population and activities in a globalizing society where urban regions keep growing often within the pattern of urban sprawl and where national governments keep sector planning still dominant over comprehensive regional planning. The case study introduces three towns (Vila Real/Régua/Lamego) located a hundred km east of the Metropolitan Area of Oporto and along the main national interior road, a connecting north-south axis. This hilly area is not sustaining its population, despite a regional plan approved in 1991 that for the first time assumed the need to develop these three towns as a major anchor in the interior northern Portugal. More than ten years past, two of these towns keep losing population to the coastal strip while the remaining other (Vila Real) has started to attract population. With significant different economic basis, split by physical constraints and historical sub-regional divides what appeared to planners to be the ideal solution and was appraised by politicians is taking a long time to develop. Infrastructure development has been lagging behind due to the high costs of building a motor way in a topographically constrained territory and in costly land as it is Port wine production area, part of it classified recently as World Heritage Area. This has probably been a major factor in hindering the interconnectivity of these three towns. In fact, what could be a 15 minutes safe trip is still taking almost one hour in ice-slippery winding roads. But other factors can be reported, namely initial lack of access to a national program with European Community funds targeting medium-sized towns for the two depressed towns. These factors among others will be put forward and discussed for further insight of the problems faced by medium-sized cities and especially their time lengthy process of reversing trends of losing population to urban regions

Naturbanization and sustainability in the National Park of Peneda-Gerês

This paper introduces territorial sustainability in general and within European and Portuguese guidelines for planning and action, namely to regulate the urbanization and urban expansion processes. This topic is relevant to discuss the dynamics of urbanization and urban sprawl in rural areas of Northern Portugal integrated in and around the National Park of Peneda- Gerês, the park with the highest classification in the whole country. These dynamics relate to changes that have been re-occurring over the last fifteen years with consequences on shifts in land-use patterns, urban settlements and economic development trends. The analysis, based on the concepts of “naturbanization” and “counterurbanization”, shows some evidence of both processes. One municipality partially comprised within the National Park is selected as case study to be further analyzed, providing deeper insight of the urbanization trends as measured by development control indicators

Using tourist employment multipliers to evaluate development policies : the case-study of the Douro Valley

The discussion of tourism development policies considering some quantitative indicators, such as employment multipliers is performed for a World Heritage area that was recently classified in Portugal: the Douro Valley. The need for classified areas to have a sustainable development, mainly in terms of preservation and tourism development is addressed. The discussion over multipliers follows and the achieved results are presented. Lastly, the detection of possible paradoxes on the evolution of the territory culminates this attempt to integrate socio and economic analytical approaches

Modelo de ciclo de vida do turismo : uma ferramenta para a gestão do turismo rural aplicada à Ilha da Madeira

O objetivo deste artigo é apresentar um modelo que contribua para a gestão sustentável de destinações turísticas em área rural, assim como apresentar o estudo de caso na Ilha da Madeira – Portugal. As investigações sobre modelos de ciclo de vida, especificamente Butler (1980) que desenvolveu a teoria do ciclo de vida da área turística, conhecida por TALC, e Lourenço (2003) que criou um modelo para áreas de expansão urbana são a base para a estruturação do modelo proposto. Ao realizar a modulação, almeja-se realizar um contributo ao poder público na tomada de decisão.The aim of this paper is to describe a proposed model for the management of rural tourism destination, as well presented the case study at Madeira Island – PT. The proposed model is based on the application of life cycle models for tourism destinations, specifically, the Tourist Area Life Cycle theory, TALC, (Butler, 1980) and the Lourenço´s model that established one model for areas of urban expansion. Modelling tourism development intended to be a contribute for public administration in the decision process.Comissão Europeia - programa Alban de nº E04D046026B

Life cycle modelling for tourism areas

Modelling tourism development cycles associated with planning and investment cycles intends to be a contribution to the understanding of the tourism activity within a continuum process. It allows a better apprehension of the sequence of interdependencies that exist and can be addressed enlarging the well-known concept of tourism product and its life cycle. The proposed model can contribute for monitoring the tourism activity and improve its development in a sustainable way. If the tourist sites use this tool they have more probability to have success, because when the tourism life cycle is monitored it is possible to introduce some corrections upon the inadequate trend. The use of the appropriate indicators to measure the activity is essential to the success of the proposed life cycle modelling, such as can be observed in Madeira Region case study

Evaluation of plan-processes in areas for tourism development

Modelling tourism development cycles associated with planning and investment cycles intends to be a contribution to the understanding of the tourism activity within a continuum process. It allows a better apprehension of the sequence of interdependencies that exist and can be addressed enlarging the well-known concept of tourism product and its life-cycle. The model sketched in this paper is still under progress and has been adapted from the territorial plan-process model (Lourenço, 2003) which is based on the quasi-model of Holton

Tourism development in world heritage urban areas

This paper will discuss how some World Heritage classified urban areas are developing in terms of sustainability, mainly in terms of preservation and tourism development. Another aim is to detect possible paradoxes on the evolution of two case-studies, both classified as World Heritage by UNESCO: Porto, a medieval area in Portugal and Ouro Preto, one of the most representative towns of baroque style in Brazil. Conflicts and different interests can be noticed in the development of tourism industry. In this context, the following question will be addressed: what have been the trickling down effects to the tourist areas