Luísa Augusto

Principal Researcher:
Sara Santos
Duration: 2022 – 2024

Cised team members
Luísa Augusto

Currently, more and more cities and regions differentiate themselves through the creation of a positive identity and image, developing territorial branding. The use of storytelling can also be an asset when used to promote tourist destinations. It is essential that the entities that manage the tourist image of Portuguese regions rethink their dissemination strategies and give priority to “storytelling”, emotions, and involvement with the public in building the image of the territories. Territorial marketing, and in particular the focus on tourism promotion videos, allows to demonstrate the unique characteristics of the territory and its differentiation from the others. Through the story told about the region, the audience identifies with the characters and is “transported” by the narrative.

In Portugal, the Centro region has stood out for the promotional films (with storytelling techniques) that it uses to promote the Center of Portugal. In recent years, “Turismo do Centro” has won dozens of international awards related to tourism promotion. For its part, the “Aldeias Históricas de Portugal” also won the world award for best tourism film in the world, in 2021.

Considering this worldwide recognition, this project will have the partnership of “Turismo do Centro” and “Aldeias Históricas de Portugal”, as examples of good practices in tourism promotion of regions through storytelling in promotional videos.

STORYtur's main objective is to understand the strategies for promoting tourism in Portuguese regions, especially in the Center region.

The project comprises the development of studies through interviews (to the representatives of “Turismo do Centro” and “Aldeias Históricas de Portugal”) and the application of questionnaires to the public.