Tourist information offices, whose mission of spreading information and supporting
tourism is becoming more demanding, are under pressure to readjust in order to
become structures that provide high quality information. A change from "physical
access" to "digital access" is being witnessed that threatens traditional structures for
the provision of information. This fact implies that the structures must be
(re)functionalized in order to promote more social contact with tourists and to offer
services other than the simple giving of information. This study seeks to characterize
the tourist information offices of the Serra da Estrela area, to inquire about their role as
providers of space in which tourists can obtain information, and to assess their skills in
relation to the behaviour and requirements of tourists in the twenty-first century,
namely the adaptation to new communication paradigms in tourism
