Under the breeze of the Portuguese Indian Ocean: tourism and heritage in Zanzibar

Abstract

Tourism is, in the 21st century, the largest industry in the world and a phenomenon structured on the basis of a dynamic and tentacular articulation. Among the forms enshrined in the phenomenon, the so-called "memory tourism" has gained relevance, based on a colonial heritage whose values are formulated according to a reminiscence of a once shared culture/ heritage: that of overseas empires. By gaining a new prominence, these postcolonial places open themselves to new readings, responding to a societal challenge of contemporary mobility by looking at the journey as a way of building culture and defining identities, for which we propose to map the heritage of portuguese roots in the archipelago of Zanzibar, a place integrated in the Lusitanian empire for two hundred years and a source of multiculturalism and otherness that our time is heir.