A country of gentle customs: Portugal according to “The Rought Guide” between 1988 and 2019

Abstract

The guidebooks are privileged means for the study of tourism. As such, they allow us to evaluate theevolution of the destination image over time. This article focuses on the image of Portugal as a destination inThe Rough Guide guidebooks from the years 1988, 1998, 2007 and 2019. A discourse analysis was applied througha content analysis to the country presentation section. This analysis allowed us to understand how the narrativeabout the country changed during three decades and in which points it remained unchanged, despite allthe transformations. Despite some points in common, the narrative offered by the authors denotes a decreasingsurprise about the characteristics of the country,