Towards a Typology of Borderland Tourism: A Case Study of the Spanish-Portuguese Borderland

Borderlands offer a specific context for the development of tourism. On the one hand the borders witness the historical scars of a divide between neighbouring territories. On the other borders function as an interface. In the area along the border of the Spanish region of Castile and Leon and the Portuguese Centre and North regions potential tourism resources are described in terms of attractions and place-related offer. Subsequently, based on the ways tourists use the potential a typology of tourism activities is developed. The destination-based typology uses Butler’s TALC model, institutional involvement in tourism development and the pros and contras of tourism development in a debordering periphery. The typology reflects a wide range of tourist activities including microproducts using endogenous resources as well as destinations exploited by supra-regional or global actors. Most destinations are typical borderland ones.