Tourism and Dimensions of Landscape Identity: Understanding the Processes of Place-Making

Fatima Bernardo (CITUA, IST- University of Lisbon)
Veerle Van Eetvelde (Ghent University, Department of Geography)
Isabel Loupa Ramos (IST/University of Lisbon, Portugal)
Annelies Van Caenegem (Ghent University, Department of Geography)

The concept of landscape identity is framed as a transactional model founded in the continuous interaction between people with their landscape in a process of identity building (Loupa-Ramos el al., 2016). This interaction is dynamic over time and is steered by external drivers. Amongst others,tourism shows a strong potential to influence and to be influenced by landscape identity. It is built on a specific character of the landscape, but it is also a driver of landscape change. By favouring global flows of people, it spreads ideas and values between places, and thereby influencing the way local population interacts with their landscape in multiple ways. Hence, landscape identity is a complex process of action-perception and people- landscape to understand.

The four principles of identity according to Breakwell’s framework (i.e., senses of distinctiveness, continuity, self-esteem and self-efficacy) can help to understand this interaction. Hence, the main objective of this paper is to disentangle the dimensions of identity in order to understand the different processes of landscape identity building and to thereby to explore how this understanding contributes the creation of a typology of tourism. The approach used in this paper starts from an expert analysis, followed by a quantitative study using questionnaires to the resident, of cases in Portugal and Belgium building on previous work. The results of this research show (a) that tourism can affect the four principles of identity differently depending on the context, (b) that it can act in both directions - threatening or reinforcing landscape identity, (c) that this approach provides ground for construction of an instrument to classify tourism, and ultimately, (d) that this findings can support the design of assertive responses that foster more sustainable tourism practices.