The XNUMXth century “Grand Tour” was a cultural and educational experience for a European elite. Today we have a wide range of “institutionalized cultural products”, based above all on monumental heritage. We know that heritage tourism is more than an economic opportunity, as it enables the reconstruction and personal enhancement of narrative and collective identity.
Trendsetters have paid particular attention to cultural tourism at European level and internationally. Its development is increasingly taking place in different and specific matters, including ethnic, literary, creative, culinary, industrial, immaterial tourism… and associating these niches with important instruments for the economic, social and political empowerment of communities.
The economic and cultural impacts of tourism must be assumed. We know that, like the others, Tourism is not a “neutral” industry – let's see right away the effects of the announced closure of a base in low cost em Faro planned for next year, the possibility of a Brexit without an agreement, which is already stirring up the main market of the tourist destination Algarve (British), the stabilization of competing markets, the very changes and climatic disturbances that include the lack of water in the region, or even the forecast of economic retraction and the assumed reduction of tourist demand in the European space, which are already moving us and promoting analyzes with some drama.
Those more negative visions of an intensive and speculative monoculture of “sun and beach” gave way to niche tourism, in which nature, culture and heritage emerge as such differentiating elements of destinations, attracting new audiences (or audiences , or consumers, as they wish).
Cultural consumption by tourists is one of the ways that can be used to build bridges of identity. In some places, it has also determined the economic viability of traditional practices and techniques, or even the rescue of memories and places in danger of extinction, due to the contribution made to their registration and inventory, to their conservation and their safeguarding.
Even in situations that seem to be condemned, due to the dimension of disturbance of indigenous communities, some see tourism based on culture, as an educational experience, because it is a moment of authenticity.
Other, more critical authors argue that the popular culture of a significant number of European nations, in its current forms, was formed through highly ideological and political processes throughout the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries and also from the wave of collecting and representation that occurred in these periods.
It is certain that tourists are currently looking for cultural and environmental destinations, where place and identity are the most evident characteristics of the social structure.
In the case of the Algarve, we know that the “monumental” dimension is insufficient as a main attraction force. Live culture, handicrafts, cuisine, parties and festivities, associated with the built heritage, are opportunities for qualifying and enriching our lives.
It is true that we go back to the past and to statements already made, but also to the present and the definition of a (future?) course. Yes, culture is a key element of creativity and innovation and today we have a range of instruments that can support us in demonstrating this value, which include: a hardware – infrastructure, equipment, monuments; it is a – events, stories and immaterialities, multifunctional spaces, projects. We have people with the will, but there are still some flaws and a lack of structure and greater cooperation.
Ameno and Sweet Algarve all year round (1)
This reflection made me want to recover the text that a friend sent me, dated 1964, which says: “The tourist industry is complete and can only be lasting when accompanied by the purpose of an awareness and an enlightened culture”. This statement comes from Augusto de Castro, Director of the Diário de Notícias at that time, and who still says: “tourism is not a manna that falls from the sky” and that the “geographical circumstances and the attractions of the climate, the natural and artistic beauties are conditions that, per se only, they are not enough and they need to be used and valued to become elements not only of attraction but of fixation”.
This 1964 publication by Casa do Algarve in Lisbon proposed the creation of the Conservatório Regional do Algarve and includes very interesting facts for the contemporary history of the Algarve. Its preface ends by acknowledging the “need and urgency of creating a Regional Conservatory in the Algarve, headquartered in Faro (2), Conservatory where, in addition to Music, the Art of acting and Dance are also taught, given that all artistic modalities are necessary to encourage entertainment that attracts the cultured tourist”.
A vision that has a time and context; note that the first major hotel in the Algarve – Vasco da Gama, in Monte Gordo – dates back to 1960, the International Airport of Faro it was only inaugurated in 1965, and it was only in 1979 that the decision to create the University of Algarve was taken.
But the biggest highlight that, in this publication, I would like to highlight is the communication of Dr. António Quadros, at the XNUMXst National Tourism Colloquium, entitled “Tourism and Culture”, from which, knowing the propagandistic vision of the time, we quote the first sentence and other excerpts that are worth knowing: “Among the tourist aspects that should be developed the most in the coming years, the cultural one is at the forefront. (…) it is not the hotels, nor the roads, nor the customs facilities, but those centers of interest that will lead people from distant lands to come to us”.
In comparison with other countries, he recognizes that “our winter is not at all attractive, as can be seen from the desolate spectacle of our empty hotels and our rest rooms dead of inaction. (…) If tourism is not merely an industry, it is precisely because it provides an intellectual radiance that undoubtedly transcends it”.
Not all ideas and concepts will make sense today, but read and reflect with the necessary adaptations: “let us increase (…) the projection of our culture and our spirit, visibly revealing it to foreigners and to ourselves through means that the economic substrate of tourism provides. At this level, tourism is not just an industry: it is more than that, it is a national and human mission”.
Recalling the extraordinary chronicle about the “Três Museus”, by António Barreto of the Público newspaper on 1 September, public debate on these issues cannot be held hostage by institutions, or divided between politicians, technicians or academics.
Institutions must be open spaces that encourage people, their stories, memories and share emotions, so that, in addition to promoting experiences and "dream sellers", they can be problem solving facilitators and strategists for the challenges that continue to arise.
Great steps have been taken in the local development of the hardware and some in testing new software, but there are always new paths to follow in a world that is constantly changing, where old problems persist, but where new ones emerge every day.
Notes:
(1) After the Medieval Fair in Silves, the Calçadas de S. Brás de Alportel, the Medieval Days of Castro Marim, the Noite Branca de Loulé, we enter September with the Mediterranean Diet Fair in Tavira and the F Festival in Faro, among many others, it is impossible to mention them all. In October the 365Algarve is resumed. A calendar and programming that is desired and expected to have a growing structure and increasingly regional communication.
(2) The Regional Conservatory was only officially created on November 12, 1973, on the initiative of Maria Campina.
Author: Alexandra Rodrigues Goncalves
Adjunct Professor at ESGHT/University of Algarve and Integrated Researcher at CinTurs
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