‘Eventful cities’ and cities of events – medieval events in Portugal – a comprehensive study

Dissertação para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Marketing e Promoção Turística apresentado à ESTM - Escola Superior de Turismo e Tecnologia do Mar do Instituto Politécnico de Leiria.As tourism is a revenue source that lies in both motivations and experiences that arouses and facilitates is will not be unusual to say that authenticity is the reason why a destination endures and resists. Cultural tourism has been growing and developing as a resource for economic growth aiming the sustainability of the places and cities that host it. Few are the cities nowadays that do not bet in the creation of attractive events, sometimes similar to other events sometimes completely innovative, but that are capable to ensure a big touristic presence and that allow the city to be a part of an eventual imaginary tourist route, for those who seek the so called genuine and authentic cultural experiences. The concept “eventful cities” yet new in Portugal is being used in other cities around the world and it has been studied by them, so that each city is capable of developing an authentic event portfolio as a touristic decoy, as well as a thrust activator of economic and social sustainability both local and regionally. This thesis aims, above all, the attempt to understand some Portuguese eventful cities and the identification of a few event impacts, namely in medieval events, in order to study them and, eventually, propose changes so as to better fit the needs of the cities and their populations