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The Future of Historic Re-enactments in Portugal—The Case of Santa Maria da Feira

2022; Springer International Publishing; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1007/978-3-031-10800-6_15

2522-8722

Roberto Carlos Reis,

Cultural Industries and Urban Development

The aim of this paper is to share the future of historic re-enactments in Portugal, the case of Santa Maria da Feira on historical reconstruction and recreation, and analyze the consequences of cancelation of this types of events. Recently, there has been a great expansion in the re-enactment of history in Portugal, so it is well worth debating the phenomenon in order to be better acquainted with it and to disseminate the associated instruments. The renewal of the State of Emergency in Portugal, on April 2020 and 2021, forced the cancelation of the largest historical re-enactment in Europe, which takes place in Santa Maria da Feira. In the list of the exceptional and temporary measures adopted by the government, in the context of the combat of COVID-19, is included the non-holding of mass events. In thousands of localities, like Santa Maria da Feira, there has been a suspension of many business operations which directly or indirectly depend on the economy fueled by visitors, and it is by no means certain that they will all reopen. The consequences of global immobility induced by The COVID-19 crisis resulted in worldwide immobility, which rather all confused those involved in the promotion and research of tourism. Probably, this pandemic will create a psychological change and during the first year many tourists will prefer to travel to nearby destinations in their own country, or to countries where the pandemic has not been too intense (if there is such a country in a few months…). However, the tourism industry has recovered before from such periods of crisis, epidemics included, which shows how resilient it is and capable of mitigating abrupt shifts in demand or supply. One should create the conditions for small local businesses to adapt, through a flexible approach to the demands of the market.