The Tourism Guidebooks and the emergence of the contemporary tourism in Portugal (from the end of the 19th century until the first decades of the 20th century)

Abstract

In the latest times the investigations accomplished around the tourism and the promoters’ institutions of this activity have been giving a broader extent to this investigation area. On his side the use of the printed guidebooks as historical sources has been opening new investigation lines. The way the tourism has evolved developed at each country has been object of studies that fall whether on the economics aspects related to the development of this activity, or on the cultural-political aspects associated to the country marketing, or on the interconnections between the tourism development and the cultural heritage. Becoming part of a utilitarian literature the travel guidebooks are a reflex of the economic, social, cultural and technological changes that through time have been introduced in cultural or vacation travels that gradually were carried out by social groups broader and broader. The analysis of the several tourism guidebooks allows one to make an approach to various subjects. If on one hand the guidebooks can be connected to the art history and define for each historical moment the idea of heritage, on the other hand they are connected to the economic history as they establish interconnections with the several means of transportation or new industries that the technological and industrial development has placed at the travellers/tourists disposal. The guidebooks were also ways of perception of the space, which contributed to the spread of new places such as the bathhouses or the beaches and for the images about cities or countryside “construction”.