Fonte: Journal of Tourism & Development; v. 3, n. 17/18 (2012); 1573-1582
Palavras-chave:
Resumo: The network of Paradores Nacionales de Turismo was established in the early decades of the last century with the purpose of providing the country with an infrastructure of hotel establishments in order to fill the gaps of a sector that was virtually non-existent at that time. The opening of the first establishment, in 1928, has given way to a long list of establishments placed on natural landscapes of special relevance and historic/artistic monuments, which are now around a hundred hotels. Portugal would soon appreciate this idea and set up a similar chain by the middle of the century: Pousadas de Portugal.This paper considers the analysis of the determining factors in the choice of historical buildings to be adapted to a new use, on the basis of a detailed documentary analysis of document and bibliographical funds and a field work in Spain. By means of these businesses we can trace a history of the evolution of tourist renovation in Iberian Peninsula, where there are many similarities but also divergences in each one of the countries’ recent history.The recent crisis in Europe compels us to analyze and share experiences where the difficult balance between the conservation of the built heritage and its use as a tourist resource have been profitable.
