DANIEL CONSTANT IN “O PRIMEIRO DE JANEIRO” - 25 YEARS OF TOURISM AND GASTRONOMY

Abstract

The journalist and artist Daniel Constant (1907-1984) penned during 27 years (1952 to 1979) in the Porto newspaper O Primeiro de Janeiro, the «Tourism and Gastronomy» section.

This intervention, that tells of an advanced stage of the final work, focuses on a sample consisting of the three first years (1952, 53 and 54) and then, every five years (1959, 64, 69, 74), until the final year of publication (1979).

As the chronology allows us to see, the feature starts under the influence of the "touristification" of the country started by António Ferro, and accompanies new phenomena and movements, such as the «discovery» of the Algarve, the changes in the touristic philosophy in the sixties and the transformations that occurred after the April 25

th, 1974 revolution.

This column dealt with, especially, national Tourism and Gastronomy, but frequently the author reflected on essential questions of touristic development, allowing us to see, here and there, theories and practices already attempted abroad, thus gaining, in many cases, pioneer status. Themes such as nature, quality, need for regulation and qualification, and tourism training, are proposed by Constant several decades before they were ever put into practice.