Fonte: Journal of Tourism & Development; v. 2, n. 17/18 (2012); 1037-1050
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Resumo: Diverse stakeholder’s perspectives on urban and tourism growth and ecological conservation often lead to the emergence of conflicts. Typical spatial planning tools may be insufficient to adequately manage those conflicts. A comprehensive vision about the conflict causes, namely on the stakeholders’ interests and on all the aspects influencing the conflict escalade, is fundamental in order to choose the appropriate strategy to manage the conflicts. This knowledge will also help to identify structural constrains to conflict management. The present communication addresses the problems that contribute to the current conflicts between the tourism development and the land use and natural resource management. For this purpose, a study case is presented: the Troia-Melides Coast (Alentejo Coast, Portugal), a coastal area, with high natural protection value, currently under pressure from urban and touristic developers. In the course of the study, 26 stakeholders were interviewed. The main conclusion is that, unless a structural change of public policies is produced, the use of a collaborative approach to conflict management between tourism development and spatial planning may be very difficult to achieve, in order to overcome those conflicts.
