The diverse evolution of tourist destinations along the Spanish-Portuguese border

This study explores the rise and fall of tourism along the Spanish-Portuguese border. The context of a debordering and severely peripheralising area is essential to understand the diverse destination-based evolution of tourism. Butler’s resort-based TALC model is applied to rural areas. The model’s applicability is limited to specific destinations as complex hierarchical multi-scalar decision-making and powerful supra-local market actors explain deviant place-specific biographies. Cultural and natural heritage and man-made attractions generate tourism in ways that result from local combinations of external market forces, extra-local institutional interventions and community involvement.