The Construction and Development of Tourism in Rural Space: the role of the central administration in its contents

Abstract

Since early on, that the central administration of the state has had a remarkable influence on the spread of rural tourism in Portugal, with nearly of three decades of the officially labelled as Turismo no Espaço Rural (TER). Despite some previous experiences, TER was created in 1986 integrating only three types of lodging units. The rural space was officially elected a space of tourism, a tourism that was new and emerged as a sustainable and familiar product and for that reason was different from the existing one in the market. The requirements in terms of construction, furniture and decoration, made it difficult the access of a large majority of rural population as well as small and medium farmers. More than ten years have passed since the issues of rural development have been assumed as one of the goals of TER. In the legislation of 1997 the concept of TER was redefined and was extended to two new popular lodging units as well as recreational activities. Despite the emphasis on the value of the heritage of rural areas in 2002 with the new redefinition of TER legislation, the issues related with rural development seem to be forgotten by the central administration. The last major change in terms of the conception of the tourism product was in 2008. Here TER loses its first type of lodging unit (tourism in a manor-house). Additionally the issues of rural development, once again, seem to be forgotten and TER seems to lose its familiarity.