Creative Industrial Tourism in Alentejo: The Case of the Estremoz Anticlinal Marble Route’

Abstract

The offer of tourist routes in inland destinations has increasingly assumed a relevant role because they have the potential to give new uses to a great diversity of resources of endogenous character. They have a multifaceted character and are easily adaptable to audiences with very different socio-demographic characteristics in terms of age, educational level, economic level and time availability, among others. This article explores the case of a tourist route that is offered in the segment of creative industrial tourism, in a perspective still under development in the Alentejo region in Portugal. In this approach, creative industrial tourism is understood as the active participation of tourists in educational activities linked to the industrial heritage of a region. Its objective is to characterize the Estremoz Anticlinal Marble Route’, in terms of the structure and processes developed for its commercialization. The institutional, socio-cultural and environmental context on which its planning and management was based, coupled with the fact that it was integrated into the CREATOUR network for the enhancement of creative tourism, make this route a reference in the offer of the destination where it operates.