Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Sustainable Development. The Model of the Cultural Heritage Digital Media Lab

The protection of cultural heritage must, at present, be seen as a determining factor, taking an active role with local communities, resident populations and the environment, for local development, in what is now known as sustainable tourism, articulating all stakeholders. Institutions, organisations, private industries and local populations should play, in close coordination with each other, an active role in the socio-cultural development of the region(s) either as a place of construction and representation of intangible cultural heritage, or as a place of valorisation and revaluation of this same heritage, transforming it into a factor of self-esteem and cultural resource of the populations, considering the potential development of local communities. The Cultural Heritage Digital Media Lab (CHDML) is an ongoing project and aims to contribute to the participatory governance process, to the rescue and enhancement of cultural heritage and memory and to the creation of opportunities for economic development and appreciation of local products, bearing in mind the market potential. New modalities of appropriation and reappropriation of the popular and the traditional emerge, now shaped under the designation of “heritage”. Cultural industries are born and developed around the concept of culture, now considered fundamental in the creative economy, tourism and sustainable development. The main goal of this paper is to present and introduce the CHDML as a platform that supports the development of projects and activities related, mainly, with the preservation of intangible cultural heritage of Portuguese-speaking countries. In this context, the authors present some examples of projects that follow the methodological approach presented in this article and underline the three main characteristics that are essential to the CHDML: (i) it is focused just on Portuguese-speaking countries; (ii) the educational aspect of working with students; (iii) the importance of working on heritage reinterpretations.