From Local Knowledge To Interpretable Data: A Community-Based Information System For Cultural Tourism Development In Trás-Os-Montes, Portugal

Rural territories in northeastern Portugal face persistent demographic decline while holding significant cultural heritage potential. This article presents a community-based information system (IS) developed within the Oficinas de Turismo Cultural project, implemented in six villages of the municipality of Macedo de Cavaleiros, building on the methodological legacies of the CREATOUR and TExTOUR projects. The IS integrates two interdependent components: a participatory session in which graphic visual representations of each village were produced and validated against community identity perceptions, and Canvas-based capacity-building sessions in which dispersed local knowledge was transformed into structured, comparable, and actionable data. The resulting dataset encompasses 84 knowledge holders, 87 special places, 68 traditions, and 8 proposed tourism experiences across the six villages. Drawing on the four IS conceptualisations proposed by Boell and Cecez-Kecmanovic — social, technologic, socio-technical, and process views — the article argues that community fieldwork is not a preparatory phase but the foundational layer of any IS for rural cultural heritage. The gap between online representations and locally constructed identity, illustrated by the Vale da Porca case, provides empirical grounding for this claim. A Power BI prototype currently operationalises the data layer, while a public-facing digital platform, with institutional support from the Municipality of Macedo de Cavaleiros, constitutes the next development phase.