As stated in the site of the CITUR research centre, “Locally lived linguistic practices are one of the main attractions of tourism and its mobility”. Through tangible and intangible cultural heritage on the island of Madeira, with a focus on local traditions linked to society and language, we intend to test the knowledge of students from the higher professional technical course in tourist information and marketing at Madeira University about their communities, namely, the identification and distinction of local tangible and intangible cultural heritage (ICH) and their importance for the sustainability of tourism. The main purpose is so that they can contribute to maintaining the identity and authenticity of local communities in the future, mainly through their ICH, promoting the potential of Madeira for the sustainable development of touristic activities in rural areas.
In 2022, Madeira was considered the Best Island Destination in the World for the eighth time by the World Travel Awards. With the challenge of the climate change, tourist regions must affirm themselves and promote sustainable tourism practices even more. Thus, sustainability is a big responsibility for the destination of Madeira, which was recognised as a “sustainable tourist destination” in February 2023 with the Silver Award, an international certification by EarthCheck. The ICH of local communities can have a great role to play in the sustainability of tourism in Madeira, as it is inseparable from the territory, society, and culture. All forms of traditional knowledge must be preserved for future generations, and this is transmitted through language, which is part of its ICH.
In 2003, UNESCO published The Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. ICH is made up of all immaterial manifestations of human culture, as the most important vehicle of cultural diversity, with the essential elements representing the living culture of human communities, their evolution and their continued development. Therefore, it includes all immaterial elements that are considered by a given community as essential components of its intrinsic identity as well as its uniqueness and distinctiveness (Lenzerini, 2011).
Local and regional identity is expressed through language that transmits ethnolinguistic realities of the territory and its places. Language tourism is a way of valo-rising communities’ cultural heritage and contributes to maintaining their authenticity and sustainability. So, traditional Madeiran Portuguese could be used more frequently, especially to transmit local identity as a tourist attraction. With this in mind, the objectives of this study were to observe whether: students distinguish tangible heritage from ICH; they identify the ICH of their local communities and its importance for sustainable tourism in Madeira; they recognise and have knowledge of ancient oral traditions, with language as the vehicle of sociocultural heritage; to ascertain if they associate those realities with the knowledge and oral transmission of older people; and to compare the answers from the different municipalities and localities regarding to tangible and ICH with tourist interest.
By means of a questionnaire with open questions, applied in the classroom to 43 students about their community of residence cultural heritage (tangible and intangible) and local identity, data were collected for a qualitative and descriptive analysis. The conclusion of the study was that students identified more ICH in rural communities of Madeira Island than for Funchal (the capital of the territory), where they indicated mainly constructed or tangible cultural heritage.
Calado et al. (2011) refer to Iorio (2010) about the search for “authentic rurality”, the interest in cultural and natural heritage and the wish to observe and get in touch with the local. The authors show that tourism associated with agriculture can be a way to maintain constructed and cultural heritage, contributing to socio-cultural development through the revitalisation of local crafts, customs, and cultural identities. Through regeneration of rural locations, rural tourism can be an alternative to keep the young population in rural areas. It must be related to environmental aspects and specificities of each place. Thus, “the process of development of rural tourism must occur at the local level (…) having as reference the local culture, as a way to maintain constructed and cultural heritage (…) maintaining records of these traditions, not leaving them to ‘die’ along with the older population.” (Calado et al., 2011, pp. 164–165). So, extinction of Heritage records must be prevented in order to maintain the historical collective memories and the value that this poses for the rural territory identity.
Čehić et al. (2021) mention that local products add value to locations and visitors can support the economic growth and environmental sustainability of the region. Therefore, the specificities that the local tourists offer allow the satisfaction of the psychological, physical, and cultural needs that motivate individuals to visit a place (Beni, 2004). Today, sustainable tourism, which refers to all forms of tourism and focuses on controlling and managing the negative impacts of this industry, is more and more important for conscientious travellers. Local development in a sustainable tourist destination depends on the local community in offering authentic natural experiences (Perna et al., 2019), with traditional sustainable practices using the knowledge of older people.
Remoaldo et al. (2017) mentions that cultural tourism is an attractive activity due to the series of benefits it can offer to local communities, like diversification of the local economy and the preservation of local traditions and culture. The author says that sustainable tourism is holistic and seen as a “green” or “alternative” form of tourism, as opposed to mass or conventional tourism. Therefore, sustainable tourism recognises that people and communities, their customs, and lifestyles contribute to the tourist experience. In this perspective, sustainable development must help to preserve and respect the socio-cultural authenticity of the host communities, conserving their cultural heritage and traditional values. This type of tourism should also aim to achieve a high degree of visitor satisfaction and provide them with a meaningful experience in the chosen destination (Remoaldo & Cadima Ribeiro, 2016). Awareness of the importance of places and appreciation of the community in terms of local heritage allow more direct contact between visitors and residents, seeking authentic and memorable experiences. This interaction is inspired by local resources with community engagement, contributing to the revitalisation of crafts, customs, and cultural identity.
Priyanto and Pirastyo (2019) explain that language is one of the cultural components of a community, together with the religious system, societal organisation system, knowledge system, livelihood system, technology and equipment system, and art. Language is the element that allows all the other mentioned components to be expressed and explained. As defined by Gumperz (1964, p. 137), the verbal repertoire of a community is “the totality of linguistic forms regularly employed in the course of socially significant interaction”. It is an important instrument for communication valuing local cultural resources and identity. The most important aspect is the lexicon, i.e., the names of the sociocultural realities that contribute to the attractiveness and distinctiveness of the destination. In this sense, language as linguistic heritage is increasingly inseparable from ICH and associated with tourism. In the case of Madeira, regionalisms as result of the combinations of geographical, historical and cultural aspects are necessary to name ethnolinguistic realities, and to transmit the traditional know-how and stories about the places and people. Rebelo and Nunes (2016) consider that these are of a sociocultural and ethnographic nature, and due to their motivation often refer to extra-linguistic realities (e.g. bolo do caco—typical flatbread, bailinho—traditional music and dance of Madeira, poncha—Madeiran regional drink with cane brandy).
Language tourism based on local linguistic heritage can also be named ethnolinguistic tourism. It means that practices of the place and traditional community of older people, mainly in rural areas, are inseparable from their language. The touristic interest and transmission of these knowledges to visitors contributes to their preservation. Underhill (2012, p. 17) defines ethnolinguistics as “The study of the relationship between languages and the communities they help to define”, and it is the base for language tourism. Therefore, as Heriyanto et al. (2019, pp. 200–202) write, ethnolinguistics bridges the domains of language and cultural practices:
(…) Language plays a very important role in the activities related to cultural tourism, both as a tool for communication and as a part of various cultural attractions. Besides, the local language may also become one of the new interests for the tourist as well. (…) In other words, tourism offers more than just pleasure, it can also make the tourists experience and taste the difference of socio-cultural atmosphere of the place that they are visiting. Besides being a tool of communication, the local language can also be regarded as something new for the tourist. New knowledge is one of the things that the tourist is looking for, besides, of course, new experience, leisure and happiness.
The authors highlight the fact that language as new knowledge and its benefit is an important part of cultural tourism. It can be educational, in the sense that it can introduce tourists to a local language related to its sociocultural situation. At the same time, language or ethnolinguistic tourism contributes to the sustainable development and diversification of cultural tourism, in this case through local communities, as an alternative cultural tourism product to diversify the offer. That is why it is important to highlight the importance of local ICH in Madeiran society and culture as it is inseparable from traditional language of communities and makes Madeira an authentic tourist destination.
Visitors can benefit from experiential tourism through memorable local activities, learning about the sociocultural features, including narratives like tales, legends, local toponymic names, the history of localities, and local life stories, as a direct and meaningful way to engage tourists in a more personal and living relationship with places. This kind of cultural tourism which is related to memory of ethnographic subjects creates immersive experiences through the emotions of storytelling.
Storytelling or ethnobiographies (ethnographic and biographic stories/narratives) with personal and socio-cultural experiences is an important dimension for understanding and appropriation of cultural diversity facts and identities. It happens through the interpretation and translation of the local narratives as part of the touristic experience. The knowledge of the local communities involves vocabulary and oral expressions from the traditional Madeiran Portuguese. Therefore, the concept of identity is inseparable from language, society, and culture. Thus, language or ethnolinguistic tourism can be seen as a special tourism niche associated with local and regional identity.
The scientific hypotheses to be tested in this empirical research are that as ICH is a more recent concept, it is less perceived and recognised by students; inside ICH, students have difficulty identifying linguistic heritage, or even the lexicon related to regional sociocultural features. As ICH is a way of valorising the traditional knowledge, values, and practices of a community, which can be lost if not transmitted to the new generations, tourism can play an important role in the preservation of local identities. So, the concept of linguistic heritage is important in expressing the names of traditional attributes like professions, techniques, materials and products, particularly in the farming domain, but also handicrafts, gastronomy, festivities, games and songs, music, uses and customs. In this sense, tourism can contribute to reviving a place's ICH, older people's knowledge which is usually transmitted orally. The speaker and the listener should know all the culturally loaded words and their diverse meanings. Pennycook & Otsuji (2015) highlight the links between language use, space, and everyday culture, building the concept of spatial repertoire – the repertoire of all natural and cultural resources available in a particular place. This is important because tourists search more and more for meaningful experiences with emotional connection and engagement with authentic local communities.
This empirical research is a qualitative and descriptive study using the method of a questionnaire with open questions about local cultural heritage to collect data from student communities. The data were collected in the classroom, in the course of Portuguese and tourism communication techniques in the higher professional technical course of tourist information and marketing at Madeira University, in the second semester of the academic years 20–21, 21–22 and 22–23. It was applied to 43 Madeiran students, residents in different localities of Funchal and in other municipalities of Madeira Island.
The research hypotheses and questions were about young students’ awareness and knowledge about the existing tangible and ICH of their localities, including the links between language, society, and culture. We intended to see if they could identify and separate the local tangible and ICH features, and if they were aware of the importance of traditional practices and preservation of values, mainly in rural areas, for sustainable tourism. The questionnaire, with open questions about the cultural heritage of the respective places of residence, was composed of four parts: the first to obtain the sociocultural profile of the respondents, with questions about their gender, age and residence; the second part to collect indications of local tangible cultural heritage; the third to indicate the ICH of their locality; and the fourth for information on their interest in participating on projects for tourist activities that promote the ICH of their locality, creating job opportunities to live and work in their communities.
A comparative method was applied for the qualitative data based on the answers to the questionnaire about local communities’ identity. The systematisation of the students’ answers to the questionnaire was carried out by separating the locations in the city of Funchal from the data from other municipalities. The representative nature of the survey is good, although it did not cover all localities and municipalities of the islands of Madeira, with Machico, Ponta do Sol, Porto Moniz and Porto Santo missing. These limitations are due to the fact of not having students from those geographical areas on the course. It was also not possible to have the same number of respondents per municipality and the representation of all parishes in the sample.
The results are important for Madeira to grow as a cultural tourism destination, mainly in rural areas, promoting connections between residents and visitors. In this sense, the research contributed to raise the interest of young students to settle in their localities, promoting the authenticity of local tourist activities as an act of sustainable tourism, with respect for the traditional culture.
From a total of 43 informants, 21 of the students surveyed were from the parishes of Funchal: Monte (1), Santa Luzia (1), Imaculado Coração de Maria (1), São Pedro (1), Sé (1), Boa Nova (1), Santa Maria Maior (3), Santo António (3), São Roque (3), and São Martinho (6). The other 22 were from different municipalities of Madeira: Santa Cruz – Caniço (10), Camacha (2) and Santo da Serra (2); Ribeira Brava—Campanário (1); Calheta—Arco da Calheta (1) and Estreito da Calheta (1); Câmara de Lobos—Jardim da Serra (1) and Estreito de Câmara de Lobos (2); Santana—Arco de São Jorge (1); and São Vicente (1). The ages of the students were between 18 and 26 years old, and with one exception aged 36. In terms of gender, there were 26 women and 17 men.
Tables 1 and 2 below present the systematisation of the students’ answers to the questionnaire, respectively, the data collected from students from Funchal and from other municipalities, separating the contents of the tangible and ICH by locations. Data relating to linguistic heritage were separated and appear highlighted in bold in the tables, although traditional language is also present in the other sociocultural manifestations.
Systematisation of responses from students of Funchal about their localities
| Localities | Tangible Cultural Heritage | Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) |
|---|---|---|
| Monte, Funchal | Villas, Funchal Ecological Park, Levada dos Tornos, Levada do Bom Sucesso, Largo das Babosas, Monte Church. | Madeira embroidery, wicker carts, religious chants, religious celebrations to Nossa Senhora do Monte, feast of the Vera Cruz, Immaculate Conception feast, singing of the Kings. |
| Santa Luzia, Funchal | Garden of Santa Luzia, villa of Santa Luzia, Santa Luzia viewpoint, Santa Luzia Church. | Regionalisms, vernacular words and oral expressions. |
| Boa Nova, Funchal | Sagrado Coração de Jesus Church, Madeira Botanical Garden and Choupana, Neves viewpoint and Palheiro Ferreiro Gardens. | |
| Imaculado Coração de Maria, Funchal | Villa Palmeira, fountains, bridges. | The traditional restaurant A Seta, wicker carts. Local stories. |
| Sé, Funchal | Sé Church, statue of Gonçalves Zarco, viewpoints, parks, and gardens. | Madeira embroidery, pottery, Madeira wine festival, flower festival, religious festivities. |
| São Pedro, Funchal | São Pedro Church. | |
| Santa Maria Maior, Funchal | Museums, botanical garden, cable car to the botanical garden, Levada do Bom Sucesso, footpaths, viewpoints, churches, washhouses, bridge, paths, fountains. | Regional embroidery, races in wicker carts, Madeira folk music and dance, religious festivals, fairs and processions, gastronomy like bolo do caco. Local stories, traditions, tales and legends, regionalisms, vernacular words and oral expressions: tratuário (promenade), baboseira (over pampering), joeira (kite flying), dar um amorzinho (work it out), amanhar o focinho de um cachorro (grooming a dog's muzzle), meter a Sé no Colégio (putting a big thing inside a smaller one), andar de beiças (be sulking). |
| Santo António, Funchal | Olympic swimming pools, Pico dos Barcelos viewpoint, Chamorra platter, levada along the road, church, regional road. | Typical Madeiran restaurants, Santo António festivity and popular saints walking, other religious and popular festivities. |
| São Roque, Funchal | Church of São Roque, nativity scene of São Roque at Christmas, viewpoints, Alegria site, levadas, footpaths, fountains. | Miradouro typical restaurant, feast of the parish of São Roque, feast of Alegria, nine times masses of birth (before Christmas). Oral expressions: avia-te (hurry up), tou com uma roeza (I am very hungry), buzico (little child), altear o som (turn up the sound); and proverbs (those who have a road do not look for a path, and he who plays with fire gets burned). |
| São Martinho, Funchal | Church of São Martinho, regional roads, monumental road, promenade from Lido to Câmara de Lobos, footpaths, soccer field at Formosa beach, Levada dos Piornais, viewpoints, peaks with urban and landscape views, hotels. | Madeira embroidery, feast of São Martinho, birth and rooster masses, Popular Saints festivities, festivities of the church of Nazaré. |
Systematisation of responses from students from other municipalities
| Localities | Tangible Cultural Heritage | Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) |
|---|---|---|
| Caniço, Camacha and Santo da Serra – Santa Cruz | Hotels, Quinta Splendida villa, Church of Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz Culture House, golf course, Santa Cruz Market, viewpoints, paths, fountains, agricultural terraces (poios), levadas, Levada da Azenha, Cristo Rei statue, Cristo Rei viewpoint, Quinta da Junta villa, Quinta da Junta viewpoint, Church of Santo da Serra, fountain of Santo António, watermills, bridges, Caniço Church, Chapel of Mãe de Deus, Chapel of São Pedro, Levada dos Tornos, Levada da Serra do Faial, Camacha viewpoints, Camacha Mother Church, Levada da Azenha. | Tapestry, dough dolls, wicker crafts, ear caps (made from sheep wool), traditional vilão (peasant) boots. Sounds and Knowledge Festival, cider and cider festival, poncha, other traditional drinks, local folklore and folk groups, onion festival, Santo Amaro festivity, São Pedro festivity, Santa Cruz market night, tangerine show, pear festival, rally festival, Nossa Senhora do Livramento festivity, feast of the Blessed Sacrament, gastronomic feast, visit of the Holy Spirit, feast of Nossa Senhora dos Remédios, other religious festivities, Art Camacha festival, playing and singing groups. Stories of the places, families and people. |
| Jardim da Serra and Estreito de Câmara de Lobos – Câmara de Lobos | Museums, levadas such as Levada do Norte, viewpoints, footpaths, agricultural terraces (poios), regional road, Nossa Senhora da Graça Church, Roque bridge. | Wine production, wine tourism routes, beef skewers, gastronomic routes, visits to agricultural land, Madeira embroidery, handmade furniture and wicker chairs, production of wicker baskets, decorative bottles, wooden pieces. Parish festivity with fair, Easter procession, Vera Cruz festivity, Nossa Senhora da Graça festivity, August festivities, harvest and wine festival, carnival and “clumsy carnival” (the informal, relaxed carnival as opposed to the official, organised parade). Traditional charolas, proverbs (“while one donkey talks the other crouches its ear”), and vernacular expressions (“go to church”, used by people who live outside the centre of the parish, the origin of the expression is due to the history of the formation of the parish that started from where you can find the church of Nossa Senhora da Graça), the pronunciation of speech which is unmistakable with any other locality. |
| Estreito da Calheta and Arco da Calheta – Calheta | Hotel Sacharum and Onda Azul, guest-houses, Levada das 25 Fontes, viewpoints, Ponta do Pargo lighthouse, Levada do Rabaçal, Levada house, Costa Verde viewpoint. | Typical restaurants, Engenho da Calheta (sugar cane mil), and sugar cane plantations. Handicrafts (creation of handcrafted pieces in tiles, embroidery, and others) in local People's Houses institutions and in the locality of Paul do Mar. Feasts of the patron saints of the parishes, feast and marches of São João, feast of Nossa Senhora da Conceição, feast of the patron São Brás, feast of Bom Despacho. Feast of charolas in Loreto, regional expressions and words. |
| Campanário – Ribeira Brava | Campanário Church, Levada do Norte, Campanário viewpoint and Partilha viewpoint. | Craftsman's space and Campanário fair. |
| Arco de São Jorge – Santana | Levadas, fountains, viewpoint of the cape. | Various religious festivities. |
| São Vicente | Rural hotels, local accommodation, levadas, viewpoints, old roads, footpaths, bridges, fountains. | Arraial of São Vicente. |
The quantity of answers of the students from the municipality of Funchal (ten localities) and the other municipalities (also ten localities) for tangible cultural heritage was the same. The main answers for the groups from Funchal and other municipalities were churches, farms, gardens, parks, viewpoints, statues, museums, hotels, fountains, bridges, levadas (irrigation canals for agriculture with footpaths, in different sections of the mountain), regional roads, golf courses, markets and mills.
ICH can be separated into five different semantic fields: handcraft, gastronomy, festivities, language and other traditions. Through these, tourists can have an immersive experience including activities connected with the place and the community and a meaningful engagement with local people. Tourist activities can contribute to valuing and protecting their traditional values, memory and identity. For example, by participating in rural activities and handicraft together with older people as active learning, tourists understand the local cultural tradition and linguistic heritage, giving them a sense of self-realisation, sharing know-how experiences and memories.
In the municipality of Funchal, for handicraft, students pointed out only Madeiran or regional embroidery and ceramics, respectively in Monte, Sé, Santa Maria Maior and São Martinho. For the other municipalities, they documented many more products and activities: Madeiran embroidery, sewing and upholstery, dough dolls, wicker work, ear caps (made from sheep's wool), handcrafted furniture and wicker chairs, production of wicker baskets, decorative bottles, wooden pieces and production of traditional vilão (peasant) boots. Regarding Calheta, a student indicated that in the local People's House institution and in the locality of Paul do Mar there are individuals dedicated to handicrafts (creation of handcrafted pieces in tiles, embroidery, and others). For Campanário, the student mentioned the existence of the Craftsman's Space and the Campanário fair, where handicrafts are sold. The students from Arco de São Jorge (Santana) and São Vicente, municipalities in the north of the island, did not indicate any local handicrafts. A female student from Camacha considered that the local wicker craft has more cultural interest to tourists than levadas.
Concerning the interest of younger people in local handicraft, in Funchal, three (two women and one man) answered positively. One from Santa Maria Maior indicated Madeiran embroidery, and another woman from Sé also mentioned embroidery and ceramics, perhaps due to the existence of Madeira's handicraft shops for tourists. A student from São Martinho was the only male informant to answer positively. The other informants answered negatively, and one explained that young people are not usually interested in traditional local activities.
In the other municipalities, five answered positively: one woman from Campanário (Ribeira Brava), one from Arco da Calheta, and one from Estreito de Câmara de Lobos. The two men that answered yes were from Jardim da Serra (Câmara de Lobos), and São Vicente. The student from Jardim da Serra justified his positive answer, writing: “I believe that the new generations are interested in acquiring knowledge of traditional know-how and learning some old customs”. The student from São Vicente explained that there had to be a stimulus to motivate young people, because in this technological time the interest in handicrafts is declining. The lack of interest is explained by the fact that young people are attracted to new technologies. That is why most students do not think that there are any young people who intend to learn these crafts.
In Funchal, the gastronomy is named mostly through typical Madeiran food restaurants, such as A Seta restaurant and Miradouro restaurant. A male student from Santa Maria Maior wrote that gastronomy, particularly bolo do caco, is an important product and would like to have a project to make it with tourists, contributing to valorising this ICH.
For the other municipalities, in Santa Cruz (parishes of Caniço and Santo da Serra), students referred to restaurants with typical food, cider, poncha, and other drinks that are part of the tradition. In Estreito de Câmara de Lobos, students recorded wine production, beef skewers, gastronomic and wine tourism routes. For Calheta, students documented typical restaurants, the Engenho da Calheta (sugar cane mill that tourists and residents can visit) and the sugar cane plantations. As traditional knowhow, these constitute an ICH as well as the production of sugar syrup and sugar cane brandy in the mill. At this mill, visitors can also taste and buy poncha made with local brandy, together with honey cake made with sugar syrup.
About the festivities in Funchal, students pointed out: the flower festival, the Madeira wine festival and religious festivals, such as Novena to Our Lady of Monte, Vera Cruz festival, Our Lady Imaculada Conceição, singing of the Kings, religious festivals and processions, the Saint Anthony festival and popular marches, the parish festival or Saint Roque festival, Alegria site festival, childbirth mass novenas, arraial (feast) of São Martinho, childbirth and rooster masses, festivals of popular saints, and festivities of the church of Nazaré.
For the other municipalities of the island, the students from Santa Cruz registered: festivities of local agricultural products like the onion festival, the tangerine show, the cider festival and the festival of the pear tree, along with the sounds and knowledge festival, gastronomic festivals, the Santa Cruz market night, festival of the rally, and religious feasts such as the Santo Amaro festival, the São Pedro festival, the festival of Our Lady of Livramento, the festival of the Blessed Sacrament, the visit of the Holy Spirit, the festival of Our Lady of Remédios. For Estreito de Câmara de Lobos, the answers were about the main local product – wine and vintage festival – and the August festival, carnival and “clumsy carnival”, together with religious festivities such as Our Lady of Graça, parish and Vera Cruz festival, and Easter procession. For Estreito da Calheta and Arco da Calheta, students documented only religious feasts, including the Charolas festival (cf. 4.2.4. Language). In Arco de São Jorge, municipality of Santana, on the north coast of Madeira, the local student only mentioned several religious festivals, without specifying them. For the municipality of São Vicente, the male student gave only the name of the local main festivity, the Feast of São Vicente.
A female student from Santo António (Funchal) showed interest in running a religious and popular festivity in her community as a local tourist activity, an opportunity to participate in the organisation of traditional events. She highlighted that it would be important as young people make it more fun, contributing to environmental, social, and economic sustainability for residents and visitors, with valorisation and protection of the local cultural identity. Another female student from Santa Cruz mentioned that religious festivities are the activities of most interest for tourists as they are well organised, with traditional gastronomy and music.
Concerning the spatial repertoires of language heritage from urban and rural communities associated with Madeiran society and culture, it is inseparable from local and regional traditions and ethnolinguistic identity.
In Funchal, the answers included proverbs, regionalisms, and vernacular words and oral expressions. The locations of Santa Maria Maior and São Roque stand out as more conservative, or the students who identified the linguistic elements had or have greater contact with the traditional Madeiran language: tratuário (promenade), baboseira (over pampering), joeira (kite flying), dar um amorzinho (work it out), amanhar o focinho de um cachorro (grooming a dog's muzzle), meter a Sé no Colégio (putting a big thing inside a smaller one), andar de beiças (be sulking); avia-te (hurry up), tou com uma roeza (I am very hungry), buzico (little child), altear o som (turn up the sound), and proverbs (those who have a road do not look for a path, and he who plays with fire gets burned). Students refer also to local stories, traditions, tales and legends.
Outside Funchal, for Estreito de Câmara de Lobos, as well as for Arco da Calheta, students pointed out the name charolas, a traditional or ethnolinguistic feature of Madeira preserved in these locations. Regarding religious festivals, charolas were registered in the Loreto festival, associated with the festivity of the Holy Spirit. Charolas are spherical frames, made with wicker from willow interwoven with wire, with a log, cuttings or banana leaf straw in the interior that keep its structure round and support the weight, which varies depending on its composition, decorated with tied agricultural products, offerings of the community to the local church.
In the localities of Calheta, students also documented the regional expression “to be mocking”. Concerning the pronunciation of speech, one student says that it is unmistakable with any other locality in the region.
Regarding other traditions in Funchal, students indicated religious songs for Monte, races in wicker carts from Monte to Santa Luzia, music and a folk dance group for Santa Maria Maior. For localities of other municipalities, the students from Camacha pointed out the local folklore or folk groups. Traditional Madeiran music and dance exists in other localities but Camacha is the best-known for these cultural manifestations.
Concerning students’ interest in participating in local activities for tourists in partnership with the People's Houses institutions, involving the community, in Funchal, three informants said no, because there are few visitors interested in knowing the city's past. In the other municipalities of Madeira, only one student said no, because they would not like to participate in the planning and organisation of these visitor activities. The student from Arco de São Jorge—Santana—despite saying that there is interest in the local activities for visitors, has the opinion that it will not benefit young people.
The students recognise that there is much untapped intercultural potential to be shared between residents and visitors: People's Houses institutions and the parishes would be interested in organising local tourist activities; social and cultural activities would be important for locals and visitors to connect and share knowledge; participation in the planning and organisation of new local activities would be a way of testing the skills and knowledge acquired in the course; the importance of Madeiran ICH as a way of blurring generational and cultural differences, contributing to proximity and communication between locals and visitors; the benefits of helping tourists appreciate the past through activities sharing sociocultural customs; young people could gain useful professional experience for the future through the opportunity of contributing to the design and marketing of new tourist interaction experiences; and families and localities would benefit greatly from sustainable tourist activities because they would have more job opportunities in their place of residence.
The last question was about local storytelling for visitors. Only a small number of students would be interested in this activity, even though they recognise that tourists would like to listen and know local stories, and all tourists like to know more about the places they visit. So, local stories will make tourists understand Madeiran culture and roots, but it will be necessary to know more about these stories to tell them correctly.
Students from other municipalities share the same opinions and say that the People's Houses in their locality have space to receive the tourists with toilets and other infrastructures and are a point of communitarian sharing and interpretation of the local culture. Regarding storytelling, the lack of proficiency in a language such as English and others could hinder the communication or transmission of local knowledge to tourists, especially in the case of certain culturally loaded words and expressions. Only one male student said that he would not like to be a storyteller because he does not identify with this kind of tourism.
The tangible and ICH of Madeira, transmitted through generations, is the result of socio-historical and geographical conditions and features of the population that inhabited different places of the island separated by mountains and deep valleys. The result of this geographic and socioeconomic isolation of localities outside Funchal, particularly traditional rural areas, is expressed through specific Madeiran vocabulary linked to local identity and traditional sustainable practices that tourists are interested in knowing about.
Students differentiated and identified more ICH than tangible heritage of touristic interest, noting that it is more abundant mainly in rural areas, including Madeiran regionalisms and vernacular expressions as linguistic heritage. They recognised the importance of ICH and its positive impacts on communities through visitors’ knowledge and connection to the place and contact with local people. Concerning linguistic heritage, they mention some lexical specificities about local and regional features. They consider that tourists are interested in ICH and gave the examples of festivities, gastronomy (including typical Madeiran restaurants) and sharing of residents’ local stories and traditions with visitors, promoting traditional knowledge.
Therefore, some students identify communities’ language or linguistic heritage as being of touristic interest. This means that they recognised the need for new forms of tourism like ethnolinguistic tourism including storytelling, translating and interpreting the stories of the people and places. They mention the importance of ICH for social and economic cohesion in more isolated locations that are losing the interest of young people in continuing to live there with no work opportunities. When this happens, traditional knowledge and local language are not transmitted to the new generations and cultural identity is lost.
The main results of this survey study demonstrate that local tourism in Madeira has a great potential, mostly due to the ICH of rural areas but also of some localities in Funchal. This is important for Madeira to expand as a cultural tourism destination, promoting connections between residents and visitors on a physical, emotional, and social level. For tangible cultural heritage, in Funchal as well as in the other municipalities, students pointed out the existence of levadas, footpaths with touristic interest. Levadas are a case of tangible and ICH of Madeira. They are part of the Madeiran cultural landscape, as it is a constructed heritage involving natural and cultural means, and at the same time they have a long socio-historical ICH, such as traditional knowledge and linguistic heritage. Most levadas indicated are outside of Funchal and related to agricultural activity. The students from the rural areas of Santa Cruz and Estreito de Câmara de Lobos pointed out agricultural terraces (poios), that is also tangible and ICH, as it involves the traditional knowledge of their construction and use. None indicated palheiros (stables) for raising cattle in traditional agriculture, also part of the cultural landscapes of rural Madeira. However, they documented visits to agricultural land together with wine production, wine tourism routes, and gastronomic routes.
With regards to storytelling, sharing local stories with tourists to transmit the knowledge about the places visited, they answered that visitors would be very interested in the knowledge of old stories and traditions about the places known by older people. However, most students have no interest in being a storyteller because telling stories and communicating is one of their handicaps and some find it boring and think that tourists want more dynamic activities. Some students revealed a low level of knowledge about and interest in the sociocultural features of their locality and say that storytelling about local memories has a lot of culturally loaded words that are difficult to translate into English or other languages. The implications of this research are an awareness of the students about valorising local communities and their cultural heritage, mainly the ICH of rural areas and their authenticity.
We cannot separate cultural tourism from heritage, including their socio-historical contexts. So, the awareness of students who attend the tourism information and marketing course at the University of Madeira about the identity values of their tangible and ICH is very important for them as future professionals. The goal and findings of this study were mainly about the importance of ICH for the authenticity and sustainability of tourism in local communities. Based on traditional values, locations can develop their cultural assets, with distinctiveness for unique tourist experiences.
Students showed themselves to be aware of the importance of local tourism for preservation of traditional values and practices, recognising the potential of ICH, especially in rural areas for the sustainability of tourism in Madeira, including retaining the young population. When comparing the answers on the tangible and ICH listed by the respondents, we have more indications on material cultural heritage for Funchal, while ICH predominates in the other municipalities, with local handicrafts and agricultural products in rural areas. Religious festivities are mentioned in practically all municipalities, except for Ribeira Brava, although many of these events exist there. With regards to linguistic heritage, traditional language (ethnolinguistic words and expressions) and stories of the places and local people, students did not indicate it for the municipalities of Ribeira Brava, Santana and São Vicente. This does not mean these cultural manifestations do not exist locally but shows their lack of knowledge or ignorance. As a whole, the results show that ICH in Madeira has great potential for local tourism.
Linguistic heritage as repository of traditional knowledge transmitted from generation to generation, denominating that ethnolinguistic realities such as bolo do caco, poncha, charolas and botas de vilão, is important ICH. This lexicon is a marker of Madeiran identity, as well as local tales and legends, and stories of the places and people. However, most students were shown to have neither the ability nor interest in local storytelling due to the difficulty of translating culturally loaded words. Yet, they recognise that tourists can understand the place having an immersive experience with a meaningful connection and engagement with local people, participating in rural activities and handicraft. With this awareness, they can protect traditional values and their identity, wanting to learn and share local memories, stories, and meanings, giving them a sense of belonging to promote authentic and transformative experiences for the elderly and visitors.
Like this, the application of the questionnaire made students aware of the importance of preservation of the local ICH as traditional know-how, mainly in rural communities for a more sustainable tourism on the island of Madeira. The limitations of this study's methodology were that of participants in the questionnaire who were students of the academic years 20–21, 21–22 and 22–23, there were no respondents from all the localities and municipalities.
The next steps would be to extend the application of the questionnaire to other Madeira University students. Then, students could be asked to do fieldwork in their localities, applying a survey about traditional activities mainly of the rural population. They should contact local people, cultural associations like the People's Houses, which protect the ICH of the places and their identities, and parish councils. This is a way for students to contact local communities and transmit a sense of valorisation of their knowledge and everyday activities in agriculture, cattle raising, food and handicrafts. The ultimate goal is to promote a more sustainable tourism distributed in a harmonious way in the island preserving its quality of life.
Language or ethnolinguistic tourism as a special interest tourism is a way of creating new tourist products related to the sociocultural identity of local communities. Ethnographic features and their names, stories of the places and traditions are the basis for authentic, memorable and educational activities with meaningful experiences for residents and tourists. By extending the application of surveys to local populations, mainly in rural areas, we can register the identification of their ICH and interest in the development of sustainable local tourism. This empirical study will be a way of promoting and preserving traditional cultural identity and regional ICH, with positive impacts on the quality of life of participants to the benefit of local communities and Madeira'ss tourism.