Abstract

PRISTA, Marta Lalanda. Tourism and sense of place in Óbidos: a pousada-hotel as a metaphor. Etnográfica [online]. 2013, vol.17, n.2, pp.369-392. ISSN 0873-6561.

Tourism studies tend to focus on tourism encounters and commoditization of ­culture as social practices interplaying with destinations’ cultures and economies. A research carried out in the village of Óbidos showed the need to equally consider tourism in the construction of a sense of place. Heritage and tourism social perceptions intermix with representations of the past in Óbidos. This cannot be thought of outside the long-term production of local history and culture as the plots of Óbidos’ tourism. But it also has to be examined in light of the social exclusion awareness, amplified by today’s intensification and professionalization of the village’s tourism. Confronted with new tourism’ actors and narratives, a significant part of Óbidos’ population invokes the authority of social and historical heritage, and embrace elites’ representations and practices as a symbolic capital in the cultural and social distinction of place, and the construction of tourism as local tradition.

Keywords : tourism; heritage; identity; distinction; Pousadas de Portugal.

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