Douro Region Research Articles

Transition Pathways of Agroecological Innovation in Portugal’s Douro Wine Region. A Multi-Level Perspective

The Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) is an analytical framework developed to explain transitions towards sustainability. This article aims to contribute to enhancing the use of the MLP to understand the transitions towards sustainability in agriculture. We propose that MLP is an insightful framework to capture particular micro-level trajectories of adopting innovations. The Douro wine region in Northern Portugal, known worldwide for the wines that are produced there, was the study area of our empirical research. This region has become the stage for developing a complex agroecological innovation, the Ecological Infrastructures (EIs). These consist of a combination of techniques that aim to expand the ecosystem services of the vineyards. The uniqueness of its development at the farm level originates a multiplicity of innovation trajectories, which are the focus of this study. Content analysis of 20 interviews with winegrowers was performed, and the results were analysed through the MLP framework. This allowed us to conclude that a process of transition towards the sustainability of region-level winegrowing is underway, and that it can be explained by the overlapping of different paths of adopting innovation. Our research shows that in-depth analysis of qualitative data, done through content analysis, can be used to amplify the insightfulness of MLP by enabling it to uncover the microscale transition pathways that shape uneven region-level transitions.

Assessing Douro Vineyards Exposure to Tropospheric Ozone

Tropospheric ozone (O3) can strongly damage vegetation. Grapevines (Vitis vinifera L.), in particular, have intermediate sensitivity to ozone. Wine production is an important economic activity, as well as a pillar to the cultural identity of several countries in the world. This study aims to evaluate the risk of Douro vineyards exposure to ozone, by estimating its concentration and deposition in the Demarcated Region of Douro in Portugal. Based on an assessment of the climatology of the area, the years 2003 to 2005 were selected among the hottest years of the recent past, and the chemical transport model CHIMERE was used to estimate the three-dimensional field of ozone and its dry deposition over the Douro region with 1 km2 of horizontal resolution. Model results were validated by comparison with measured data from the European air quality database (AirBase). The exposure indicator AOT40 (accumulated concentration of ozone above 40 ppb) was calculated and an exposure–response function was applied to determine the grapevine risk to ozone exposure. The target value for the protection of vegetation established by the Air Quality Framework Directive was exceeded on most of the Douro region, especially over the Baixo Corgo and Cima Corgo sub-regions. The results of the exposure–response functions suggest that the productivity loss can reach 27% and that the sugar content of the grapes could be reduced by 32%, but these values are affected by the inherent uncertainty of the used methodology.

Informação e comunicação nos postos de turismo do Douro

Os postos de turismo são espaços de hospitalidade, de comunicação com os visitantes e de (re)construção de imagens e experiências do destino, podendo mesmo estimular profundas ligações emocionais com o território visitado. Neste texto analisamos o seu papel de mediação comunicacional entre os visitantes e os destinos a partir de um estudo de caso na região do Douro, no Norte de Portugal. Procuramos, assim, compreender os procedimentos de informação e comunicação turística realizados através dos postos municipais de turismo. De forma complementar, é nosso intuito perceber o processo de transformação de muitos destes postos em lojas interativas de turismo, o que implicou mudanças significativas nos processos e práticas de comunicação com os turistas. Os elementos que sustentam a análise foram proporcionados por um trabalho de terreno de natureza quali-quantitiva e multimetódica, embora a abordagem qualitativa tenha assumido maior destaque. Em concreto, a pesquisa empírica foi realizada através da observação participante, de entrevistas semidirigidas, da netnografia e da pesquisa documental e estatística. Os dados apurados evidenciam a existência de constrangimentos estruturais em muitos dos postos de turismo e, por outro lado, mostram-nos a importância do fator humano nos processos de comunicação turística, o que não deixa de suscitar uma reflexão acerca das valências que estes postos deverão assumir no quadro de uma sociedade digital, atulhada em (des)informação.

The Brand as Value Production. From the Trademark to the Designation of Origin of Wines from the Douro Demarcated Region

At the end of the 19th century, modern commercial brands emerged after the creation of the legal framework for their protection and the birth of large commercial companies. In the Portuguese wine sector, there was a strong adhesion of companies to the registration of trademarks as a defense against practices of “abusive use of false or misleading indications of provenance”, in a context of post-phylloxera reconversion, market instability and the proliferation of imitations and counterfeits. The commercial sector took ownership of the brand in its identification with the designation of origin, leading to the emergence at the beginning of the 20th century of a movement led by prominent personalities from the Douro Region in the sense of creation of legal mechanisms to defend the regional brand of Portwine. We will analyze three historical quintas (estates) — Senhora da Ribeira, Bomfim and Zimbro — and the marks (brands, labels and fire marks) of Silva & Cosens, the “most respectable” company in the Douro wine trade in the early 20th century. We aim to undesrtand how this company created trademarks with a strongly identifying character with the Douro Demarcated Region, the producing region of its wines.

Creation and Acceptability of a Fragrance with a Characteristic Tawny Port Wine-Like Aroma.

Port wine, the ultimate expression of the Demarcated Douro Region’s (DDR’s) history, cultural heritage experience, and art, was born on the slopes of the Douro river valley. One of the categories of port wine that is much appreciated by consumers is tawny port wine. This category of wine is aged in oak barrels and is characterized by oxidative aromas. Thus, the objective of the present work was to develop a tawny port wine-like fragrance, the first according to the literature. First, a group of 50 consumers in an informal environment and using two samples of tawny port wine (13 and over 40 years of aging in wood, respectively) was asked about the pleasantness of the aromas and the possible use of a tawny port wine-like fragrance. More than 80% of the group stated that they would use the fragrance as an air freshener (scent marketing in restaurants) or even in personal-use products. Then, a sensory panel of 12 participants (3 men and 9 women) was trained, and using tawny port wines of various brands and ages, the panel selected six descriptors to aromatically describe this type of wine. For the descriptors, seven aromatic chemical compounds were appointed and fragrances were developed with contributions from the panel. After several sessions with the sensory panel, three fragrances were selected, created with only three of the aromatic compounds initially used: benzaldehyde, sotolon, and vanillin. Afterward, the levels of consumer acceptability (150 individuals) for the three developed fragrances were studied and the optimization of their sensory characteristics was evaluated using a “just about right” (JAR) scale. It was found that male individuals assigned higher ratings and preferred fragrance 5.1, which was a statistically significant result (p < 0.001). Regarding age, Tukey’s test showed significant differences in responses to fragrance 5.3 between young adults and middle-aged adults (p = 0.018). Young adults gave higher scores for this fragrance. Additionally, consumers considered that the intensity of the tawny port wine aroma was ideal in the three fragrances, however, the fragrance color was not very intense. The use of the three compounds (benzaldehyde, sotolon, and vanillin) seems to be enough to obtain a tawny port wine-like fragrance.

Vine-Canes as a Source of Value-Added Compounds for Cosmetic Formulations.

The majority of works about vine-canes are focused on the evaluation of their chemical composition and antioxidant potential. To the best of our knowledge, the possible applications of produced extracts in cosmetic formulations have never been explored. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the antioxidant properties of vine-canes subcritical water extracts for use as active ingredients in the cosmetic industry. For that, the phenolic content and antioxidant activity of six vine-cane varieties, namely Alvarinho and Loureiro from the Minho region and Touriga Nacional and Tinta Roriz (TR) from both the Douro and Dão regions, were evaluated through spectrophotometric and chromatographic methods. All extracts presented similar antioxidant activity and the highest phenolic content was reported for TR variety from the Douro region (33.7 ± 1.9 mg GAE/g dw). The capacity of vine-cane extracts to capture reactive oxygen species superoxide (O2∙−) was also studied, with the highest IC50 value being obtained for Loureiro variety (56.68 ± 2.60 µg/mL). Furthermore, no adverse effects on HaCaT and HFF-1 dermal cell lines in concentrations below 100 and 1000 μg/mL, respectively, were determined. Finally, Loureiro vine-cane extract was incorporated into a topical formulation, and physical and microbiological properties were within expected values, demonstrating that vine-canes extracts can be successfully incorporated in cosmetic products.

Low-Cost LoRaWAN Node for Agro-Intelligence IoT

Intelligent agriculture in general, but especially when agricultural fields are very heterogeneous, requires a large number of sensors in order to obtain an effective control and thus increase productivity. This need becomes more evident in vineyards on the farms of the demarcated Douro region due to the specificities of the territory and the vineyards themselves. Thus, it is necessary to have low cost sensors which are, essentially, easy to install and maintain. In the present work, a node with these characteristics was developed, which, in addition, is low consumption and communicates wirelessly through a Long Rang Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) network. To obtain an easy installation, a library of clusters was created for the LoRaWAN network and dedicated to sensors used in agriculture, especially those using an asynchronous serial protocol for intelligent sensors. Three nodes were developed and tested with sensors used in agriculture to measure several environmental parameters (soil and air temperature; wind speed, gust and direction; soil water content, water tension and electrical conductivity; solar radiation; precipitation; atmospheric and vapor pressure; relative humidity; and lightning strikes count). The three nodes send data to a server through an existing gateway on the farm. The data are decoded and sent to an Internet-of-Things analytics platform where it is aggregated, viewed and analyzed. Samples of the data collected are presented. The developed nodes are of small dimensions ( 85 × 65 × 35 m m ), thus making them easy to handle and install. Energy consumption depends on the distance to the gateway, and the number and type of sensors connected to each node. In the implemented cases, the maximum consumption was ≈ 400 μ A . The development of a cluster based library makes the node plug-and-play. The developed nodes will be a great step forward for the use of wireless sensors in smart agriculture in Douro vineyards.

Water to wine in wineries in Portugal Douro Region: Comparative study between wineries with different sizes

Wine production, one of the oldest industries in the world is an industry for which water use in winery operations is often disregarded of best practice, with many managers unconscious how water is used within their operations.Given the economic and cultural significance attributed to wine production in Portugal and in the world, it is crucial that research be undertaken to understand how water is used in wine industry in order to increase the efficient use of this vital resource. The study aimed to measure, evaluate and discuss the water consumption in three wineries with different production volumes.Results showed that there are clearly two distinct seasons in the consumption of water: a low season (from November to August, sensu lato), with reduced consumptions, and a high season, corresponding to the harvest/first racking period (September/October), a period in which water consumption is multiplied by a factor 2–3 in the smallest wineries, or by a factor 5 in the larger ones. Outside the harvest period, consumption shows a linear evolution in all wineries. During the harvest/first rackings season (September/October), consumption increases, showing an exponential evolution, with around 35 to 50% of annual water accumulated consumption (as shown in A and B wineries mainly).In fact, results show that the quantity of wine produced influences, above all, the specific consumption of water (l of water per l wine produced), benefiting large wineries due to the greater scale economy. The values founded for the specific consumption of water are still very high, and that lives a field for research to look for specific measures of efficiency in the use of water in this type of industry.

Efficiency analysis of viticulture systems in the Portuguese Douro region

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to estimate and analyse the technical efficiency (TE) component of productivity for a sample of winegrowers from the Douro Demarcated Region in Portugal.Design/methodology/approachThe data were collected through face-to-face surveys and includes a sample of 110 farmers’ vineyards with specific input-output information and other data about production systems during the year of 2017. The authors use a two-stage data envelopment analysis using bootstrap techniques to obtain TE scores in the farmers’ vineyards and to examine the determinants of its efficiency.FindingsThe results show that some farmers’ vineyards have a low efficiency level and that there are essential determinants of the production system, which can influence its efficiency. This suggests considerable opportunities for improvement of wine grape productivity through better use of available resources considering the state of technology.Originality/valueThis work has overcome the lack of data in the farmers’ vineyards, the lack of efficiency studies in the region and also allowed to evaluate the production systems and to assess their impact on efficiency.

As Secções do Vale em Caldas do Moledo

Caldas do Moledo, conhecida como Pórtico de entrada do coração do Douro graças à sua posição estratégica na margem direita do Rio, sempre foi de grande importância no âmbito do intercâmbio económico, cultural e social. Contudo, novas dinâmicas emergem na região e lugares outrora protagonizantes encontram-se suspensos no tempo, numa decadência expectante de uma nova vida. A construção de uma estratégia de revalorização para o caso de estudo procura compreender as possibilidades de recuperação de um lugar pleno de carácter que detém potencialidades enquadráveis nas dinâmicas contemporâneas. Será apresentada uma visão que não se revê nas imagens superficiais do Douro turístico, procurando, antes, valorizar o seu Genius Loci. As potencialidades multidimensionais do corte são exploradas enquanto método de investigação e, simultaneamente, instrumento de observação, processo de interpretação e estratégia de intervenção. O argumento central procura compreender como, desde a Secção do Vale de Patrick Geddes, passando pelas cross-sections de Peter Hall, até à construção do olhar oblíquo entre as camadas palimpsésticas de André Corboz e a observação eclética de Stefano Boeri –olhando Aloïs Riegl pelo retrovisor–, as transformações do território reclamam outros instrumentos de compreensão e estratégias na modificação das realidades. Torna-se essencial compreender para criteriosamente preservar e transformar o património material e imaterial da Região do Douro, aqui focado em Caldas do Moledo, tanto quanto é imperativo reconstruir um discurso que una tradição e progresso, verdadeiramente representante de uma ‘Paisagem Cultural Evolutiva e Viva’.

Association of lifestyle factors with semen quality: A pilot study conducted in men from the Portuguese Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro region followed in fertility support consultations.

A cross-sectional pilot study was conducted in men followed in fertility consultations, from the portuguese Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro region, in order to associate several lifestyle factors with the spermatic parameters. Of a total of 522 men, 373 were compared based on the occupational exposure to harmful factors, smoking habits and practice of physical exercise per week, and the other 149 men according to their body mass index (normal weight vs. overweight vs. obesity). In the absence of harmful occupational factors, physical exercise seems to be associated with sperm quality improvement, whether individuals smoke or not. When exposed to harmful environments, non-smokers that practice physical exercise more than two times per week tended to present the best vitality, normal morphology and sperm concentration (p>.05). However, if they smoke, physical exercise seems not enough to enhance the spermatic parameters. The BMI correlated negatively with the spermatic quality, especially with sperm concentration (p<.05). Concerning men that did not present lifestyle risks associated, the motility, midpiece and tail abnormalities, and teratozoospermia index were significantly worse on obese individuals comparing to overweight men (p<.05). Thus, patients should also be recommended to control their weight and to have a BMI under 30kg/m2 .

Tourism governance through the eyes of local stakeholders: experiences and new possibilities in the Douro region (Portugal)

Governance is a recurring issue in current tourism research. However, there are still few studies focused on autochthonous governance perspectives. In this sense, and considering the Douro region (Portugal), we analyse the experiences and understandings expressed by local agents about the tourism organisation and their projections on alternative paths to follow. Our main aims are to characterise the political-organisational ecology in which the (inter)actions of multiple tourism stakeholders are inscribed and to understand their willingness to integrate new governance processes. This analytical exercise is supported by data collected through semi-structured interviews and documentary research. These data point to the existence of structural gaps among the entities that intervene within the tourism system. Also, they reveal intra-regional dissensions that undermine any integrated tourism management processes. Aware of this scenario, local agents identify some possibilities to be considered for building a new coherent and sustained governance configuration for tourism in the Douro.

Tourism governance through the eyes of local stakeholders: experiences and new possibilities in the Douro region (Portugal)

Tourism governance through the eyes of local stakeholders: experiences and new possibilities in the Douro region (Portugal)

Trinta anos depois: para além do sítio de Castelo Velho de Freixo de Numão. Recintos murados e deposições da pré-história recente

This article describes the study and musealization of a late prehistoric walled enclosure located at the Portuguese Upper Douro: Castelo Velho de Freixo de Numao. From the excavation started in 1989, to the opening of the site in 2007, and the publishing of a global interpretative perspective in 2019, there have been thirty years of numerous archaeological actions. I aim to summarize those actions discussing their nature and diversity. The main discovery in Castelo Velho was the identification of deposition contexts, assembling disparate materialities under different formal grammars. Such contexts date from the 3rd millennium, disappearing during the first half of the 2nd millennium BC. Deposition contexts, in association with other features, namely several narrow passages in the enclosure (probably used in successive opening and closing cycles) allowed interpreting the enclosure as a conditioned space hosting ceremonial practices during the 3rd millennium BC. Over this period, weren’t observed architectural and/or contextual discontinuities, suggesting that the site was occupied in the light of the same social dynamics. The main architectural elements of the enclosure remained active until the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. However, the traces of the occupations during this period are sparse and globally different from those of the 3rd millennium BC. Overall, the site was transformed into another place: an enclosed area, accessed only through a passage, connected to the Cogeces cultural world. The 2nd millennium BC enclosure was then a place with other social functions, whose cultural uniqueness still eludes us. Within the several questions to be made in the investigation of Castelo Velho, it should be stand out this one: What may have been the cause(s) of the turning point that took place between the end of the 3rd and the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC? We shall also ask: Has this change occurred at a regional level, does it mirror a social transformation of the Chalcolithic communities in the Upper Douro region?

Deep Learning Techniques for Grape Plant Species Identification in Natural Images.

Frequently, the vineyards in the Douro Region present multiple grape varieties per parcel and even per row. An automatic algorithm for grape variety identification as an integrated software component was proposed that can be applied, for example, to a robotic harvesting system. However, some issues and constraints in its development were highlighted, namely, the images captured in natural environment, low volume of images, high similarity of the images among different grape varieties, leaf senescence, and significant changes on the grapevine leaf and bunch images in the harvest seasons, mainly due to adverse climatic conditions, diseases, and the presence of pesticides. In this paper, the performance of the transfer learning and fine-tuning techniques based on AlexNet architecture were evaluated when applied to the identification of grape varieties. Two natural vineyard image datasets were captured in different geographical locations and harvest seasons. To generate different datasets for training and classification, some image processing methods, including a proposed four-corners-in-one image warping algorithm, were used. The experimental results, obtained from the application of an AlexNet-based transfer learning scheme and trained on the image dataset pre-processed through the four-corners-in-one method, achieved a test accuracy score of 77.30%. Applying this classifier model, an accuracy of 89.75% on the popular Flavia leaf dataset was reached. The results obtained by the proposed approach are promising and encouraging in helping Douro wine growers in the automatic task of identifying grape varieties.

Toward a generalized predictive model of grapevine water status in Douro region from hyperspectral data

The predawn leaf water potential (ѱpd) is an eco-physiological indicator widely used for assessing vines water status and thus supporting irrigation management in several wine regions worldwide. However, the ѱpd is measured in a short time period before sunrise and the collection of a large sample of points is necessary to adequately represent a vineyard, which constitute operational constraints. In the present study, an alternative method based on hyperspectral data derived from a handheld spectroradiometer and machine learning algorithms was tested and validated for assessing grapevine water status. Two test sites in Douro wine region, integrating three grapevine cultivars, were studied for the years of 2014, 2015, and 2017. Four machine learning regression algorithms were tested for predicting the ѱpd as a continuous variable, namely Random Forest (RF), Bagging Trees (BT), Gaussian Process Regression (GPR), and Variational Heteroscedastic Gaussian Process Regression (VH-GPR). Three predicting variables, including two vegetation indices (NRI554,561 and WI900,970) and a time-dynamic variable based on the ѱpd (ѱpd_0), were applied for modelling the response variable (ѱpd). Additionally, the predicted values of ѱpd were aggregated into three classes representing different levels of water deficit (low, moderate, and high) and compared with the corresponding classes of ѱpd observed values. A root mean square error (RMSE) and a mean absolute error (MAE) lower or equal than 0.15 MPa and 0.12 MPa, respectively, were obtained with an external validation data set (n = 71 observations) for the various algorithms. When the modelling results were assessed through classes of values, a high overall accuracy was obtained for all the algorithms (82–83%), with prediction accuracy by class ranging between 79% and 100%. These results show a good performance of the predictive models, which considered a large variability of climatic, environmental, and agronomic conditions, and included various grape cultivars. By predicting both continuous values of ѱpd and classes of ѱpd, the approach presented in this study allowed obtaining 2-levels of accurate information about vines water status, which can be used to feed management decisions of different types of stakeholders.

Firm characteristics and export performance in Portuguese wine firms

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to contribute to the determinants of export performance literature. The authors investigate the effect of firm characteristics on the Douro region wine firms export performance. The authors consider the Douro region, as it has the Portugal highest wine classification, the appellation d’origine contrôlée and undertakes the first position in the Portuguese wine production and export.Design/methodology/approachThe authors apply a pooling cross-sectional data set that includes 427 observations. The authors pooled two cross sections consisting of 214 and 213 firms for the years 2014 and 215, respectively. The firm export intensity and propensity are the dependent variables. Moreover, the firm size, age and productive efficiency are accounted as the firm characteristics. The authors use the ordinary least squares regression and the tobit and probit models for estimations.FindingsFirst, size is an influential factor to improve the export performance, and the importance of size is higher for younger firms. Second, there is a positive response from export intensity to age and this response is higher for smaller firms. However, there is a negative response from the export propensity to age and this negative response is higher for bigger firms. Third, there is weak evidence to support a relationship between efficiency and export performance.Research limitations/implicationsThis research and the presented results are undoubtedly under some limitations. The main limitation is about the data availability for all characteristics of a firm. For example, it will enrich the result if the authors add some other important variables such as production cost, research and development expenditure and the quality of produced wine by each firm to our analysis.Originality/valueThis research reveals that the influence of firm characteristics on the export performance of Portuguese wine firms is missing in the literature. The results provide a basis to Portuguese wineries to improve their export performance by applying the relevant strategies.

Wine tourism apps as wine destination branding instruments: content and functionality analysis

论葡萄酒旅游app的旅游目的地品牌营销功效：内容分析和功能分析摘要摘要研究目的本论文旨在评估Douro葡萄酒旅游app的品牌营销竞争力。本论文通过对比国际葡萄酒旅游app对其内容和功能方面进行分析。研究设计/方法/途径研究通过对Douro和国际葡萄酒旅游app在内容和功能上的比较评估来判定是否其之间有显著差别。本论文在内容和功能多个方面上进行频率分析和chi square分析, 本论文还采用Shapiro-Wilks测试来对其样本的做正态分布检查, 通过独立样本t检验来评估消费者评分和下载数量之间的差异。研究结果研究结果表明Douro和国际葡萄酒旅游app在每个细节方面上都有显著差异, 但是在整体内容和功能方面并没有显著差异。研究理论限制/意义本论文只局限在研究Douro地区, 葡萄牙其他十三个葡萄酒区域未纳入研究样本。研究实践意义葡萄酒旅游app能够影响旅游目的地品牌营销, 其app能够为游客提供葡萄酒区域和葡萄酒相关活动的信息。App清晰结构能够使得消费者更容易找到相关内容, 社交媒体和娱乐性能的运用能够提高消费者整体体验, 特别是对年轻消费者。研究社会意义研究结果对有意提高其目的地品牌形象和服务升级的葡萄酒旅游营销商和管理者来说, 提出了很多管理启示, 满足葡萄酒旅游消费需求。研究原创性/价值本论文通过葡萄酒app的内容和功能方面的分析, 其中涉及的变量是技术接受模型（TAM）的经典变量, 以及其变量对目的地品牌营销的作用, 因此研究结果对旅游移动app的文献有着显著贡献。关键词. 内容、功能, 葡萄酒、旅游目的地、品牌营销、Douro

Winescape’s Aesthetic Impact on Lodging Room Prices: A Spatial Analysis of the Douro Region

ABSTRACTThis study estimates the local economic effects on lodging establishments’ room prices of the winescape’s aesthetic attributes, mostly shaped by the wine filière, combined with other fundamental situation, site-specific and online reputation factors. A semi-parametric geographically weighted regression model was applied to examine how lodging establishments’ room prices vary in space. The hedonic pricing model was based on Booking.com’s room rates of lodging establishments located in the Douro region in Portugal, a monocultural environment, which is predominantly rural and dominated by vineyards, combining small towns with a hybrid urban-rural character. The results suggest that landscape factors, which encapsulate structural features of the Douro wine region, exert a statistically significant effect on lodging establishments’ room prices.

'Slow down, your movie is too fast': Slow tourism representations in the promotional videos of the Douro region (Northern Portugal)

Abstract Slow tourism provides a new approach to contemporary touristic practices by taking into account local populations, extending the length of stay at the destination, and making the tourist experience more fulfilling. The Douro is a rural region that could benefit from slow tourism practices. However, the main tourism activity at the destination is presently limited largely to all-inclusive cruises packages in the Douro river valley, the terroir of the world-renowned port wine. This research first explores the extent to which attributes of slow tourism exist in the region, particularly in relation to modes of transport, local attractiveness, natural and built heritage, and interaction with local people. It then investigates how they are represented in promotional videos of the Douro region produced by the municipalities in conjunction with its DMO. A qualitative analysis of content was conducted alongside with an in-depth interview. The study takes a multi-method approach by analyzing not only the content but also the context by drawing upon complementary information provided by the interviewee. The results obtained testify to the presence of some slow tourism attributes in the videos. However, a clear message is still missing that could elevate the potential of this region to become a sustainable and slow destination.