"The Legacy of European Capitals of Culture to the ´Smarteness` of Cities: the case of Guimarães 2012"

The objective of the paper is to examine the extent to which the legacy of European Capitals of Culture (ECOC) increases the “smartness” of cities. To achieve this goal, we adopted a qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews to a panel of experts (academics, politicians) to collect well-informed opinions on the long-term impacts of the mega-event on the city of Guimarães. Throughout the analysis of data, we assess whether the legacy of the 2012 Guimarães ECOC matched the dimensions proposed by Giffinger et al. (2007) to rank smart cities’ performance; specifically, if it has smart (i) economy, (ii) people, (iii) governance, (iv) mobility, (v) environment, and (vi) living. The research showed that the legacy comprises elements of almost all the above-mentioned dimensions. Further, the analysis has revealed that this kind of mega-event reinforces the smartness of the city in which it is hosted in terms of attributes such as living, economy, people and environment. No significant legacy is observed with respect to the mobility dimension.

Keywords: Smart Cities, ECOC, Legacy, Urban Development.

Susana Bernardino

Politécnico do Porto, Portugal

J. Freitas Santos

Politécnico do Porto/ Universidade do Minho, Portugal

J. Cadima Ribeiro

Universidade do Minho, Portugal

(resumo de comunicação apresentada no 24º Congresso da APDR (24th APDR Congress), genericamente subordinado ao tema ‘Intelectual Capital and Regional Development – new landscapes and challenges for planning the space’, organizado pela Associação Portuguesa para o Desenvolvimento Regional, que decorreu na Universidade da Beira Interior, Covilhã, a 6 e 7 de julho de 2017) 

RPER n.º 45 - Disponível ´online`

«Bom dia,

Vimos pelo presente informar que a RPER n.º 45 já está disponível ´online`.

http://www.apdr.pt/siteRPER/PT/revista.html

Com os melhores cumprimentos,

Elisabete Martins»

(reprodução de mensagem que entretanto me caiu na caixa de correio eletrónico, proveniente do Secretariado da APDR)

The planning of tourism on rural areas: the stakeholders` perceptions of the Boticas municipality (Northern Portugal)

Abstract

Most of the strategies developed to “save” rural territories in Europe have not been successful. One of the main problems has been the adoption of the top-down paradigm in the approach to the development of those territories. Portugal is a good example of the difficulty of adopting a bottom-up paradigm. The main objective of this paper is to present the perceptions of the local (including the residents) and regional stakeholders acting at Boticas towards the set of resources available and the development of the tourism industry. Boticas is a Northern Portuguese rural low density municipality. Capturing those perceptions, the research aims contributing to the establishment of a more integrated and innovative development strategy and, this way, a more able one in what concerns profiting from the potential associated to the growing of the tourism industry experienced lately by Portugal. The adoption of a mixed-method to proceed to the evaluation of the resources and capturing the perceptions on their tourist potential kept by the different stakeholders is suggested. Empirical data was collected through a survey applied to 373 of its residents and 25 interviews conducted to local and regional actors, supported by an inventory performed of the cultural resources and its capacity of being visited. We could conclude that residents tend to have a very positive perception towards tourism development and that their perceptions largely met the ones of other stakeholders.

Keywords: Rural Development; Tourism Planning; Perceptions; Resources; Tourist Attributes; Stakeholders.

Paula Remoaldo

Lab2PT (Laboratory of Landscape, Heritage and Territory), University of Minho, Portugal, e-mail: paularemoaldo@gmail.com

Isabel Freitas

Lab2PT (Laboratory of Landscape, Heritage and Territory), University Portucalense, Portugal, e-mail: ifc@uportu.pt

Olga Matos

Lab2PT (Laboratory of Landscape, Heritage and Territory), Polytechnic Institute of Viana do Castelo, e-mail: omatos@estg.ipvc.pt

Hélder Lopes

Lab2PT (Laboratory of Landscape, Heritage and Territory), University of Minho, Portugal, e-mail: htsltiago@gmail.com

Sara Silva

Lab2PT (Laboratory of Landscape, Heritage and Territory), University of Minho, Portugal, e-mail: sara.catarina.g@gmail.com

Maria Dolores Sánchez-Fernández

Lab2PT (Laboratory of Landscape, Heritage and Territory), University of Corunha, e-mail: maria.msflores@gmail.com

J. Cadima Ribeiro

NIPE (Economic Policies Research Unit) and Lab2PT, University of Minho, Portugal, e-mail: jcadima@eeg.uminho.pt

Vitor Ribeiro

Lab2PT (Laboratory of Landscape, Heritage and Territory), University of Minho, Portugal, e-mail: vitor.geografia@gmail.com

(Resumo de artigo aceite para publicação em  European Countryside, N. 3/2017 - September 2017)