ABSTRACT
The spas we focus on are 15 kilometres apart and are located in two small communities, Vidago and Pedras Salgadas, in the Alto Tâmega region, in the Trás-os-Montes ( ‘ behind-the-mountains ’ ) district, the extreme North of Portugal. It is an interior rural mountainous region that will become accessible by highway, the A24/E801, by the end of 2007. The Vidago and Pedras Salgadas spas are both located approximately 2 hours drive from international airports on both sides of the Portuguese-Spanish border, Porto and Vigo. The region faces all the problems typical for its geographical isolation: low population density, a greying and declining population, decreasing importance of the agricultural employment sector and entrepreneurial initiatives that do not take off. However the region is rich in resources. In the tourism segment alone, it includes (popular) culture, history, handicrafts, a hospitable population, beautiful scenery, and agriculture; it provides an ideal environment for hunting and fi shing or outdoor sports and it offers water of all forms (lakes, rivers, river beaches, dams, and mineral springs). All of them are perfect ingredients to diversify the tourist offer and, what is more, all can easily be exploited more intensively.
