The “Algarve Literary Route” is one of the projects in the Algarve region, approved under the Participatory Budget Portugal (OPP 2018), and developed by the University of Algarve, with the coordination of professors Rita Baleiro and Sílvia Quinteiro, professors at the Escola Superior de Hotelaria e Tourismo (ESGHT) of the UAlg, in close collaboration with the Direção Regional de Cultura do Algarve (DRC Algarve).

According to its coordinators, this route aims to «create a new look at this region: a look mediated by literary texts and with which we will read the space, monuments, history, legends, nature, the Algarve and their ancestral practices.”

«The purpose, above all, is to enhance the Algarve’s heritage by associating physical space with texts, establishing connections between physical space and texts by Algarve authors. Create literary itineraries in the 16 municipalities of the region, make them available in Portuguese, English, French and Spanish, in order to expand, diversify and enrich the offer of cultural experiences in the Algarve, for national and international visitors​ of all ages​.»

According to the Direção Regional de Cultura do Algarve, this route «is intended to offer a different look at the region, since the vast majority of these itineraries suggest locations in the Algarve interior, as well as combating the seasonality of tourism in the region, while promoting the Portuguese Literature».

«These tours also have potential in a school context, in the occupation of the elderly, in the training of local guides and in the promotion of Algarve authors to an international audience, within the scope of Literary Tourism», she adds.

«Each itinerary corresponds to a brochure and a route marked on the ground, so that the visitor can do it independently. The brochures offer a narrative that results from the meeting of literary texts with the biographies of the writers and the territory, and is complemented with information on the history, demography, gastronomy, legends and traditions of each of these places », she says.

Launched by the Direção Regional de Cultura do Algarve on December 17th, in the Salão Nobre of the Câmara Municipal de São Brás de Alportel, The Literary Route of the Algarve will be presented in the future, itinerary by itinerary, in collaboration with the Algarve municipalities.