Fonte: Journal of Tourism & Development; n. 9 (2008); 45-62
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Resumo: Over the last decade, the tourist activity has had an enormous impact in Portugal, both economically and socially, with more than 11 million tourists entering the country and nearly 23 million visitors entering the country in 2006. However, there are huge differences between the coastal and the inland areas, with growing tourist flows in the Algarve, Madeira and the Lisbon coast and much lower growth inland. This emphasises the need to diversify the national tourist product, in order to decrease the importance of the “sun, sand & sea” market, which corresponds to almost 90% of total demand. One potential means of diversification is the development of cultural tourism, particularly through the development of the immense cultural heritage dispersed through the entire country.However, and it must be remembered that a very significant part of the Portuguese cultural heritage is property of the Catholic Church (Falcão, 2002), which means that one of the largest potential products is “religious tourism”.This paper aims at describing the basic methodology used in the study Religious Tourism as a motor for regional development – the potential for religious tourism in the Northern Region. The main objective of the research was to establish the religious tourism potential the different areas of the North of Portugal, and in particular the opportunities for development around the so-called “anchor-sites” in the region.
