Tourism Regions in Portugal

Last modified: 2002-06-14 by antonio martins
Keywords: tourism |
Links: FOTW homepage | search | disclaimer and copyright | write us | mirrors

• Introduction

• Portugal

Portuguese tourism regions are quite unrelated to other geographic 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 Azores coincide — 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

• 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 and Odemira.