Portuguese lighthouses: a way to diversify tourism in the coastal territories

Abstract

The tourist competitiveness of coastal areas is directly related to their ability to innovate in the different ways of using them and with the creativity that allows them to make a difference in the face of global competition and reduce seasonality. It is in this context that the Portuguese lighthouses and their innumerable potentialities arise, without neglecting their primary function related to the safety of navigation, to become tourist accommodation, taking advantage of its heritage value, its history, and its stories, and its privileged geographical location, or in places of visitation, in the scope of Coastal Tourism and Cultural Tourism. This chapter analyzes Portuguese lighthouses, identifying those with the greatest potential as accommodation units and/or places of visitation. The author proposes strategies, although brief and subject to future development, aiming at the tourist production of these public infrastructures and the diversification of the offer in terms of Coastal Tourism.