Enogastronomy in Northern Portugal: Destination Cooperation and Regional Identity

This study aims to understand how conflicting stakeholders’ interests and agendas of the public, private and non-profit sectors may affect the management of the tourism destination identity. It focuses on Northern Portugal, a geographical area with contrasting characteristics, ranging from coastal urban areas to rural hinterland, each dealing with different development issues. The study is qualitative in nature, being carried out using in-depth interviews conducted with various stakeholders (public, private and non-profit sectors) at three wine regions located in Northern Portugal. Data was examined through content analysis. The findings suggest that there is an evident lack of cooperation between the food-and-wine and the tourism sectors in the three wine regions, which tends to hinder the construction of a territorial identity for development purposes. This study identifies the role of public organisations in promoting a shared vision for endogenous products alongside local stakeholders, thus contributing to the construct of a territorial identity. Although regional identity is studied in the relatively limited context of cooperation among stakeholders’ practices, the paper exemplifies how local food and wine products can enhance the identity of tourism destinations.