The Raízes Vivas Festival, which takes place in Santarém on September 25 and 26, proposes a valorization of the cultural and gastronomic identity of Ribatejo, bringing visitors closer to the region’s products, know-how, traditions, and local communities. The initiative also raises the question of the role that tourism can play in the economic valorization and in the preservation of the territory’s resources.
In an interview with Green Savers, José Santos, president of the Regional Tourism Entity of Alentejo and Ribatejo, advocates a shift in approach to tourism development, based on valorizing the territory and the communities, rather than a logic centered solely on increasing the number of visitors.
For the official, tourist success should not be measured only by the number of people who arrive at a destination, but also by the value that remains in the territory, the impact on communities, and the capacity to preserve the resources that give it identity. Gastronomy, linked to agriculture, to producers, to local varieties and to traditional knowledge, can assume, in this process, a role that goes beyond tourist promotion, contributing to give a future to local activities and modes of production.
The Raízes Vivas Festival aims to valorize the cultural and gastronomic identity of Santarém and Ribatejo. Why is it important today to talk about territorial identity when talking about sustainable development?
Sustainability must also be seen from a social perspective, reinforcing people’s sense of belonging to their respective communities, to their roots and traditions. Raízes Vivas is truly a festival built with the local communities; just look at the involvement of associations in its program and dynamics.
Gastronomy can be a tool to preserve landscapes, cultures and production methods. How do you see that relationship in the Ribatejo case?
I see a very strong relationship. When we value gastronomy, we are necessarily valuing what lies behind it.
A traditional dish does not begin in the kitchen. It begins in the land, in agriculture, in livestock farming, in producers, in local varieties, in the techniques and knowledge that have been passed down from generation to generation.
In the Ribatejo, gastronomy is deeply linked to the landscape and to agricultural activity. Valuing the products and the Ribatejo’s cuisine also means giving greater visibility to those who produce and creating economic reasons for which certain production methods and certain traditions continue to live.
That is why gastronomy can be much more than tourist promotion. It can be a policy of valorization of the territory.
What role can local and seasonal products play in building a more sustainable tourism model?
They can play a fundamental role, because they bring tourism closer to the local economy and reduce the distance between those who visit and those who produce. Promoting local products means ensuring that a larger share of the value generated by tourism remains in the territory. And working with seasonal products also means respecting natural cycles, agriculture, and the very gastronomic identity of each region.
In the Ribatejo case, we can transform this into a tourism experience: taking visitors to markets, to agricultural ventures, to wineries, to restaurants, to producers, and to the spaces where these products are transformed. The visitor ceases to be merely a consumer and begins to understand the origin of what they consume.
How can we find the balance between promoting a territory and ensuring that its resources are not over-exploited?
That is perhaps one of the greatest challenges of contemporary tourism: growing without destroying what makes a destination attractive. We should not measure tourist success solely by the number of visitors. We must also look at the value those visitors leave on the territory, at the economic impact on communities, at the preservation of resources, and at the quality of the experience.
Ultimately, we must move from a quantity-driven logic to a value-and-balance logic.
In what ways can the tourism strategy contribute to valorizing those who produce and bringing visitors closer to the Ribatejo’s agricultural reality?
It can do so by creating a much more direct link between tourism, agriculture, gastronomy, and territory. Raízes is about that.
The visitor arriving in Ribatejo should have the possibility to perceive that behind a wine, a cheese, a meat, an olive oil, or a traditional dish there exists a landscape, an agricultural operation, a family, knowledge, and a story.
It is here that I see a great opportunity for tourism: to tell better the story of those who produce.
We can create experiences visiting producers, tastings, gastronomic routes, agricultural experiences, programs linked to harvests, to agriculture, to gastronomy and to rural traditions.
And there is a very important question: when tourism places an economic value on what is produced in the territory, it is also contributing to ensuring that these activities have a future.
Ultimately, we want the visitor not to take away only a photograph of Ribatejo. We want them to take away an experience, a memory, and a greater understanding of what makes this territory unique.
