Tourism Regions in Portugal (original) (raw)

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Introduction

Portuguese tourism regions are quite unrelated to othergeographic divisions, and there are even two different kinds of them: the central government “Tourism Promotion Areas” (Áreas Turístico-Promocionais) and the local municipal associations “Tourism Regions” (Regiões de Turismo / Comissões Regionais de Turismo). Of these two concorrent maps, only Algarve,Madeira and Azorescoincide — which is quite annoying for the average tourist: While consulates and travel agencies abroad will probably display brochures (usually published by ICEP, the government authority for “image” promotion abroad) refering to the Tourism Promotion Areas, locally municipal tourism authorities use brochures and other material based on the Tourism Regions (the borders of these two divisions overlap and do not match in most cases).

Those Tourism Promotion Areas (as far as I know, flagless) are:

Costa Verde (Green Coast)
Montanhas (Mountains)
Costa de Prata (Silver Coast)
Costa de Lisboa (Lisbon)
Planícies (Plains)
Algarve
Madeira
Azores As far as I know, only some of the Tourism Regions has and use flags, mostely based on their logos. However I dont have yet a complete listing of them. Moreover some municipalities not included in any Tourism Region (they run their own independent municipal tourism offices). Anyway, those Tourism Regions I’m informed about are:
Alto Minho
Verde Minho
Alto Tâmega e Barroso
Nordeste Trasmontano
Serra do Marão
Douro Sul
Rota da Luz (Route of the Light)
Dão-Lafões
Leiria-Fátima (formerly: Rota do Sol, Route of the Sun)
Centro
Templários (Floresta Central e Albufeiras)
Oeste
Ribatejo
Costa do Sol (Sunny Coast)
Costa Azul (Blue Coast)
Serra de São Mamede
Évora
Planície Dourada (Golden Plain)
Algarve
plus some independent municipal tourism offices, at least:Lisbon, Vila Nova de Foz Coa andOdemira. António Martins, 03 Jul 1998

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