Stakeholders’ analysis for services improvement: the case of Oporto’s Religious heritage and tourism ecosystems.

Abstract

This exploratory paper starts with a glance about the complex stakeholders’ interaction inside religious heritage and tourism ecosystems, as the result of a process of social construction. The focus will be given on Oporto’s religious heritage in order to identify, understand and build a broad set of processes and knowledge, which could help/guide policy makers and tourism/cultural managers, to match the interests of all stakeholders, build up the community identity and develop innovative authentic cultural tourism experiences. The methodology follows the steps of Schmeer (1999) that yields useful and accurate information, able to conduct on religious heritage and tourism stakeholders. Stakeholder analysis of Oporto religious heritage involves a process of scientifically collecting, validating and analyzing qualitative information to determine whose interests should be taken into account when developing and/or implementing a policy or program, particularly focusing the offered services.