Feiras de alimentos: espaço de memória e desenvolvimento local no Algarve

This communication is based on an investigation about a food fair in the Algarve, whose objective was to describe the Loulé food fair in the Algarve as a tourist heritage area that portrays the food memory and acts as a productive arrangement triggering local development . The methodological course was qualitative with observations, informal and formal conversations with 200 people (120 residents and 80 tourists) during three months of the year 2018. The results presented in a descriptive report with an anthropological approach point out that people (residents and tourists) who buy the Algarve food products at the Loulé fair, they are able to give producers the possibility to continue betting on the traditional Mediterranean food productions with their memories and flavors of the local traditions. In this sense, tourism has shown itself to be an ally in local growth and development, preservation and sustainability of cultural and intangible cultural heritage of this territory thanks to a program called Loulé Criativo. It was also possible to verify that this fair provides creative experiences aimed at the coexistence and sociability between the tourist and the population of Loulé. It is also a weekly event and a resource capable of generating job creation aimed at creative tourism and experience with a gastronomic focus.