A New Approach to Monitoring Touristic and Cultural Routes: The Challenge of Development and Use of Indicators-Based Systems

摘要

The present paper results of an ongoing research project were it is expected to develop an informationsystem to monitoring a cultural-touristic route. The route to monitor is the Romanesque Route of Tâmega. ThisRoute is composed of 58 monuments located in the region of Tâmega in the North of Portugal. Due to theparticular location of this region, that is between coastal zone, but not yet in the inland, it has a weak politicalinfluence, and it is reflected in the low levels of development at several levels, observed. The RomanesqueRoute was implemented in a part of this region in 1998, and enlarged to the all-region in 2010. In order toevaluate the socio-ecomonic impact of this route in the region a research project is being developed. The maingoal of this paper is to open a discussion on the elements that must be taken into consideration to evaluate theeconomic and social impact of a touristic cultural route within a region and this one in particular.