L-Tour

Atividade Científica

L-TOUR's research is organised into lines, each with its own data protocols and an intended use for the territory. It favours applied, interdisciplinary and problem-oriented approaches that connect research, public decision-making, private organisations and communities.

• Tourism economics and territorial dependence: measuring exposure and economic dependence on tourism at municipal level, with composite indices and structural equation models, and assessing the validity of official tourism statistics as indicators. It addresses a specific gap: the absence of outcome measurement, beyond outputs, in municipal tourism strategies.
• Culture, creativity and heritage: the cultural and creative ecosystems of the Médio Tejo region (agents, venues, public funding, digital presence, tangible and intangible heritage, events and networks), with annual data collection under a common protocol.
• Evaluation of cultural and heritage events: evaluation models for long-cycle festivals and cultural mega-events, such as the Tabuleiros Festival, and for historical re-enactment events, such as the Templar Festival.
• Experiences, interpretation and digitalisation: design and curation of tourism experiences, storytelling and e-storytelling, gamification in heritage education and digital routes.

Fields of work: tourism and cultural management, tourism and cultural product development, tourism economics, smart tourism, sustainability, experience curation, cultural heritage and heritage interpretation, museology, ethnography and traditional arts, municipal management of tourism and culture, events, tourism planning, data analysis, indicators and evaluation models.

Key publication

Simões, J. T. (Coord.), Silva, S., Silva, M., & Brito, S. (2025). HITTS — Boas práticas para a valorização patrimonial no âmbito do turismo sustentável no espaço SUDOE: Experiências inspiradoras [HITTS good-practice guide; also available in English, Spanish and French]. Instituto Politécnico de Tomar. ISBN 978-989-9170-35-3.

The laboratory's network of corresponding researchers is presented in the section "Investigadores do IPT e Investigadores Externos no L-tour.ipt". Members' publications are listed in their Ciência Vitae profiles.