Cultural heritage and tourism development policies : the case of portuguese U.N.E.S.C.O. world heritage city

Abstract

Tourism profits from the endogenous resources of territories and has become a major instrument of development for many towns and regions all over the world. Tourism is also a way to preserve the cultural heritage of a region. The city of Guimarães in northern Portugal has become a place of strong symbolic significance and now constitutes an example of urban Portuguese patrimony preservation. The city has tried to justify the world heritage certification attributed by U.N.E.S.C.O. in the year 2001 by increasing the number of infrastructures and implementing a tourism animation programme with a growing level of diversification. This paper aims to produce a short analysis of the tourism strategy followed by the Guimarães tourism authorities, addressing the issues of the city’s tourism image, visitors’ profile and cultural dynamics.