Tourism territories in low density areas: The case of Naturtejo geopark in Portugal

Abstract

This paper aims to supply some elements regarding tourism territories’ building in low density areas, and to corroborate the creation of a specific tourism territory (the Naturtejo Geopark) by the role carried out by a new territorial actor – Naturtejo, EIM (a Portuguese geopark´s management firm) - allowing tourism activities within a territorial scope different from the traditional territorial units’ partition. The methodology applied is based on literature review and a specific case study used to show the creation of a new tourism territory. The results achieved suggest that concerted action in this new tourism territory has been producing positive effects from the supply-side point of view.

Keywords

• Low-density areas; tourism territories; geoparks