From the enhancement of a olive heritage to territorial development: oleotourism

Resumo

The olive tree is part of the collective imagination of large Mediterranean territories, awakening the interest of residents, heritage communities and tourists. Precisely, oleotourism has recently emerged as a way to promote olive heritage, at a time when tourism tends to promote increasingly personalized services, with added value in the experience. Each territory seeks to diversify its tourist offer through a more intelligent and sustainable use of its endogenous resources, by creating niche offers strongly imbued with authenticity, which include traditional practices, cultural interaction, gastronomy and the characteristics of the destination. Some regions have already begun to benefit from “quality income from the territory and baskets of products in which olive oil is one of the stars”, and they see the olive tree as a resource capable of playing “an important role in the revitalization of the territory for a local public in search of its roots or in terms of preserving traditions in relation to the tourist clientele”. In any case, and with increasing frequency in the regions surveyed, olive oil tourism is developing.

Keywords: Olive heritage; oleotourism; territorial development; Mediterranean countries; France; Greece; Portugal.