Tourism and landscape in the Azores: change, challenges and opportunities.
Research contributions towards collaborative planning and management strategies.

General Objective
To contribute to knowledge and international theoretical debate on tourism, landscape and their close interrelation, through the case study of the Azores.

Specific objectives

• To understand landscape changes related to tourism in the Azores and the challenges and opportunities arising from them.
• Based on this understanding, to foster collaborative planning and management strategies, including monitoring, with the participation of all agents related to the most paradigmatic changes identified, which aim the sustainable development of tourism and landscape by optimising the touristic economic potential of the Azorean landscape and its inherent socio-cultural and environmental values.
• To contribute to the implementation of the recommendations expressed in international and national strategic policies related to tourism and landscape – e.g. the Agenda for a Sustainable and Competitive European Tourism, the European Landscape Convention, the Política Nacional de Arquitectura e Paisagem – and to the revision of Plano de Ordenamento Turístico da Região Autónoma dos Açores, if it still in progress.

Objective and project relevance 
Taking into account the research specific objectives, the project relevance is firstly related to fostering the adoption of broad collaborative strategies. Yet, it also enables the:

(1) coordination between enterprises, public administration and entities of the scientific and technological system of the Azores;

(2) promotion of linkages between tourism and other priority areas;

(3) expansion of information technologies for the promotion and monitoring of tourism in the Azores; and (4) development of software applications geared towards tourism.