Regarding what has been produced over the past two years it's possible to present some conclusions. Strictly speaking, there is an incipient knowledge of Military Tourism in Portugal, namely concerning its presence in national tourism strategy along with entities which commercialize and promote activates of this nature. However, following what has already been developed this territory possesses a group of goods and services, and more recently, public and private intentions, which we predict will facilitate the organized development of products and activities of this nature.
We equally conclude that the interaction between tourism and national historical military heritage can stimulate the development of new activities and products, as well as complementing existing ones, it is therefore admissible that national military history possesses conditions to create new tourism and cultural experiences. Continuing inventory and production of heritage interpretation focused on publics of culture and theme tourism has a path to follow.
Associated to the identified issues of "social cohesion" and "duty to memory" referred to countless times, throughout this publication, it is important to highlight the conclusions which pointed out that local communities must be involved in the process of military tourism development.
Furthermore conditions must be created to stimulate the business sector into revealing itself as a determinant asset for Military Tourism. The Armed Forces should equally be affirmed as an irrefutable actor in this process, while understanding their possible reservations and constraints in this context, keeping in mind their main institutional mission. This conclusion is part of a possible economic, cultural and social development context in the referred communities, organizations and territories.
Taking into consideration, as seen in this publication, that the activation of heritage serves tourism, namely as an element of affirmation and enhancement falling back on methodological approaches which are holistically acceptable, and that have long cycle effects, the present study was centred on domains which, in a proposal of this nature, possess conditions for the conceptual and operational development of Military Tourism.
From this research viewpoint and considering the composite nature of the studied object, seeing as we are dealing with Military Tourism, an innovative and singular methodological scheme was adopted along with an archive of scientific and institutional knowledge comprised of determinant bibliographical references and through the presentation of study cases and concrete institutional visions.
The possible methodological options which could be selected were experimentally developed during technical visits, which fulfilled great part of observation and analysis, description and synthesis which were formulated and fulfilled.
The results and contributions presented in this document gather, in our analysis, an outcome from our concluded work so far, in a way focused on the conceptualization and operationalization difficulties of Military Tourism in national territory, thusly leading us to alternatives which can determine new research pathways to be followed in future research. It is of the capacity of the National Military Tourism Charter to instigate attentions and investments on which great part of the business future of Military Tourism depends. Without an integrated vision on the role of Military Heritage and it's varied influence on surrounding territories, on the local populations and people which seek to be confronted with that type of heritage and on the public and private organization's which, necessarily, together comprise the support structure to this National Military Tourism Charter proposal.
Summarizing, the conclusions drawn from this project lead us to consider that Military Tourism requires a heritage activation process of an intrinsic nature to this domain of material and immaterial culture, given the reservations of the military "object" and the tourism operationalization approach it requires.
Recognizing that the development of synergies in the actions associated to the articulation between heritage and Tourism, should not be interpreted solely as a mere issue of political will but, among others, as an issue of "survival", the team associated to this project views and interprets this Military Tourism and it´s respective conceptual and operational journey as a case of national and international success the tourism, heritage, sustainability and collective memory sector.
