Tourism as a territorial marketing strategy: the case of the electric in the landscape of the city of Coimbra

Abstract

The electric tram played an important role in people's lives, in their individual and collective experiences, becoming a symbol with cultural identity. It has a strong seductive power capable of changing the urban landscape, materializing into a geo-symbol and even transforming the use of new social spaces. The tram may be a heritage of extreme relevance in the (re) creation of new tourist territories through representations that are territorialized, as they change places and urban landscapes. On the other hand, territorial marketing is used as a strategy for planning, managing and promoting places with the aim of increasing attractiveness with internal and external audiences. The brand constitutes a core element, demonstrating the specificities of the process of building the territorial brand and it argues about its synergetic relationship with the attractiveness and competitiveness of places and explores the question of how the electric can be seen as an active capital of place marketing, but also as an attractive pole and recipient of tourism. The active capitals of places to position and communicate their attributes can present themselves as strategies at the service of place marketing, with the electric tram being a case in point.