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The purpose of this paper is to present and analyse the recently launched strategic and marketing tourism plan for the Azores and how this is being used to foster tourism development in the region.

The article is based on information drawn from official national and regional sources.

In recent years, the Azores Archipelago has been enjoying a wave of popularity that witnessed a boost with the change in the new air accessibilities policy, culminating with the arrival of the low-cost airlines to the region. The positive isolation that the Azores faced for many years, because of few and expensive air connections, presently allows the offering of an unspoiled region of nine islands to the world tourism markets. To maintain and further expand the benefits of tourism, a tourism strategy, deeply rooted in sustainable principles, was developed and is being implemented.

This paper presents the perspective of the Azorean government and the responses given to the challenges and opportunities derived from a new wave of tourists to the region as a result of changes in the new air accessibilities policy, culminating with the arrival of the low-cost airlines to the Archipelago.

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how the Azores are overcoming the challenges and less favourable conditions arising from the economic crisis.

The article is based on information drawn from official national and regional sources.

The positive evolution that was taking place in the Azorean tourism was naturally affected by the financial and economic crisis. In recent years, the Archipelago has been enjoying visibility as a tourist destination and is increasingly standing out as a unique destination due to its natural and landscape heritage, capable of captivating the most demanding tourists in terms of environmental quality.

This article presents the perspective of the Azorean government and the responses given to the challenges caused by the economic crisis and the strategies outlined for the coming years.

This paper aims to introduce the articles in this issue and explain the pertinence of the strategic question.

A brief context for the strategic question is provided, as well as the issue alignment and a content analysis of the articles selected.

A contextualization for the economic crisis affecting Portugal is presented and its impact on the Tourism Industry discussed. The articles range from a series of research studies on Portuguese Tourism, demonstrating its evolution over the past three years (2011-2013), and various viewpoint/position papers reflecting the perspectives of the main stakeholders of this industry and how they analyze the context of crisis that is affecting the country since 2010.

The articles selected for this issue contribute to shed light on an important phase of Portugal’s history, allowing for an understanding of the impacts of the financial crisis on domestic tourism and sectors such as restaurants and hotels, as well as the government’s perspective on the evolution of the industry over past three years. The information presented and analysed reveals some interesting lessons, namely, that a financial crisis may not affect directly the growth and development of the tourism industry.

The present theme issue analysis the context of financial crisis that Portugal is facing and brings together, for the first time in a single publication, the views of major stakeholders of the Portuguese Tourism Industry.

Geotechnologies have a long tradition in several areas of society and research. The recent development of the ‘Internet of Everything’ (IoE) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technologies opened several doors to the contribution of tourism. Emergent technologies contributions to tourism and planning such as web mapping, augmented reality (AR), crowdsourcing and crowdsensing are relatively recent, and there is a lack of research around their potential for Creative Tourism enhancement. For example, combining web mapping with AR or storytelling can be an excellent contribution to operators, planners and tourists. For research purposes, new opportunities are open, particularly by integrating community-shared data. It is well known for the popularity of social networks, the exponential growth of photo sharing, but few studies have been implemented to understand their contribution to research. This chapter focuses on emerging geotechnologies concerning cultural mapping, Creative Tourism and sustainability. Since it is a new growing niche, more research is needed to develop and understand the potential of new approaches. Besides traditional techniques such as quantitative (e.g. surveys) and qualitative ones (e.g. interviews, focus groups and world café), it revises the role of geotechnologies on Creative Tourism development and growing activities. Results from case studies from Europe are analysed.