Heritage tourism has been widely seen in the last years as an effective way of

addressing the socio-economic problems and the heritage degradation of peripheral territories.

Heritage is a rising tourism product providing tourists with experiences based on the

(in)tangible remains of the past. Due to the lack of other possibilities, the policies found in

peripheral territories often highlight tourism – particularly heritage tourism – as the most

valuable activity to launch a more sustainable development process. Nevertheless, the impact

of heritage tourism is controversial and not always evident both in terms of socio-economic

regeneration and in terms of heritage rehabilitation, contradicting some generalized rhetoric.

The article presents the main conclusions of research undertaken in the Portuguese peripheral

municipality of Almeida, where heritage tourism is claimed to be the most promising activity to

overcome the current trend of decline. Data were collected from municipal and regional entities

using a previously structured survey about perceptions and attitudes towards heritage tourism

development in the municipality. The findings disclose the main obstacles, the strategies and

the challenges that this territory is facing to underpin development based on heritage tourism.

The main conclusions highlight the strong fragmentation between public and private entities

and the lack of a tourism management plan for Almeida’s successful future as a destination of

heritage tourism. In certain ways, and due to similar problems, the findings and the proposals

of the present research can be applied to other peripheral areas.