From Shaping of Pottery to Shaping of a Safe Tourism: The Case of the Artisanal Routes of Barcelos

In 2020 the Covid-19 pandemic caused tourism to fall into its worst crisis ever and travel to be put on hold, the year 2021 brings a new lease of life to tourism and a new hope of social and financial reconstruction for many tourist destinations. In the tourism reconstruction process, destinations try to show that they are able to receive tourists by practicing safe tourism. Considering Portugal as a safe country, the tourist offer is dedicating itself, through several strategies, to the readjustment process of its products, such as the artisan. The municipality of Barcelos is currently, in the north of Portugal, one of the territories with the most artisans, distributed in various artisan productions, such as pottery. The Figurado of Barcelos, a certified artisan product, is currently one of the largest pottery’s artisan productions in the municipality, distinguishing itself from any other production due to its unique characteristics. In this perspective, this study aims to understand and analyse the process of shaping the tourism product of the Barcelos artisanal route, to the new demands implied for a safe tourism. For this, a qualitative study will be implemented, through semi-structured interviews with craftsmen of the Barcelos artisanal routes and the regional artisan promotion entities. Living a phase of uncertainty, this theme aims to analyse important and central perspectives for the current tourism development, looking to somehow boost and enhance the territorial craft capital. In an interdisciplinary perspective, the present manuscript presents inputs for tourism and artisans management. At the end, guidelines for future work will be presented. The present chapter finds can be used for future research, acting as a basis for empirical studies.