Residential tourism and municipal land use planning in Portugal
2018
In Portuguese development policies, both territorial and sectoral ones, an ever
increasing attention has been paid to the phenomenon of the residential tourism.
However, the very concept of residential tourism is still not clearly defined
neither in the political and technical discourses addressing this phenomenon,
nor in the tourism sector legislation and research. According to the official
documents and declarations of policy makers of the sector, residential tourism
in Portugal is perceived as a “tourist package” made of two main components:
(i) the real estate development of second homes, and (i) its complement with
a range of support services that may include, among other, hotels and golf,
or other activities related to tourism animation. The expected results of these
two investment vectors are the increased loyalty and periods of stay, as well
as reduction of seasonality of large flows of tourists to Portugal from major
emission markets.
The marketing of second homes became possible since 1969 within the
framework of different “tourist accommodation” categories, such as tourism
lodges and villas, or tourism villages and resorts. How to explain the recent
“new awakening” about this type of tourism real estate? Also, how to
understand its non-proliferation across much larger parts of the Portuguese
territory? Answers partly lay in the planning system that has been grasping with the land use modalities in Portugal since the end of 1970s. Although
the application of defined perimeters of urban settlements has been strictly
observed, the construction outside these perimeters has sometimes been
tolerated, often defending the necessity to develop the tourism industry. To
this end, more or less extensive zones of municipal territories with certain
environmental amenities can be reserved in municipal plans for tourism use.
Yet, throughout the Portuguese land use planning process has been claimed
that no construction development, unless it is in the common public interest,
can collide with the values of natural environment preservation.
Evidently, there are conflicting interests between, on one side, state policies
aimed at containing urbanization and protecting primary tourist resources that
are pivotal for keeping Portugal as a high quality destination, and, on the
other side, the ambitions of construction developers to multiply investments,
especially in the real estate component as often the best and fastest source of
revenue.
This paper is a contribution to a better understanding of the problem of the
uncontrolled expansion of second homes and, correspondingly, of the heavily
scrutinized so-called residential tourism in Portugal.
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