Fonte: Journal of Tourism & Development; v. 3, n. 17/18 (2012); 1245-1256
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Resumo: This paper explores the analytical interlocution with the reception of the Algarve gastronomy by the neoresidents from the EU-15 countries.We do not intend to draw a physicalist perspective to follow the various versions analysis of the phenomenon. Instead, we will seek to understand an implicated phenomenological frameset as cultural melting pot, generating touristic attractiveness in spaces, in which the phenomenon of tourism is devised as intercultural practice. And if tourism feeds on ideocultures, it seems relevant to include gastronomy in a structured vision of tourism, expanding it into a “social spatiality” implicated in the dimming of cultural frontiers between peoples.This paper is based on the analysis of the structured interviews made to 42 associations in the Algarve region, whose members are mostly neo-residents. As part of their research in the government-funded R&D project called “Touristic cultures of neo-residents in the Algarve”, the authors applied content analysis to the empirical data gathered, which covers the transmigratory experience of the individuals interviewed, since the 1980’s.The most expressive results suggest an association between the role of local food as a positive cultural attribute, added to the fact that it facilitates the incorporation of individuals in a new residential space, although it doesn’t occupy, yet,a role of indisputable centrality. This highlights the need of a more expressive “cultural intermediation” in this domain, otherwise we would be disregarding a potential aggregator of a touristic advantage.
