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the problems for Portugal's touristic development
and makes it too dependent on the demand
from a handful of foreign countries. Another
problem arises from the fact that inbound tourists
have a low level of expenditure in the country as
compared with other European destinations. In
1996 the average stay of foreign visitors was seven
days, but the receipts per arrival stabilised around
$438 �as compared with $1,900 in Denmark,
$1,537 in Sweden, $1,155 in Germany and $683
in Spain).
Portuguese vacationers account for a significant,
though yet unknown, amount of tourism's contribution
to the GNP. Their proportion is still small
relatively to other European countries, as only 27
per cent of Portuguese citizens take a vacation
away from home. Their average per capita
expenditure on vacation is largely smaller than
that of foreigners, around $112 for a seven-day
vacation. This segment, however, is expected to
grow in numbers and in expenditure within the
next years as the Portuguese become more affluent.
Further reading
DG Turismo �1997) `AnaÂlise de Conjuntura',
Boletim n. 24, Lisbon.
World Tourism Organization �1998) `Europe',
Tourism Market Trends Series, Madrid: WTO.
postcard
JULIOR.ARAMBERRI,USA
Postcards are cards for mailed messages, often
printed by governmental postal services. They were
first introduced in Austria in 1869. Picture
postcards, covered on one side with a photo or
drawing and printed privately, were introduced in
1894. The text on the latter was initially limited to
`Greetings from ...' but later a limited space for
correspondence was provided on the obverse. In
the early years of the twentieth century a postcard
craze spread in Europe and America, and
postcards became big business, as well as collector's
items.
Early picture postcards depicted primarily local
views and events; however, following the growing
demarcation of tourist spaces and the staging of
attractions, postcards began increasingly to depict
touristic sites and sights, such as vacationing
resorts, beaches, costumed natives and a variety
of appealing facilities rather than the ordinary flow
of local life �Albers and James 1986). As such,
postcards, like posters, advertisements, guidebooks
and travel videos, help to form an �often
stereotyped) image of destinations, and to motivate
prospective tourists to visit them. While they
engender expectations prior to the trip, they also
serve as standards with which actual experiences
are compared, and as souvenirs of the trip or
proofs of `having been there'.
Postcards are a useful but minor source of
historic documentation. They are probably more
important as a ubiquitous form of imagery, lending
themselves well to content analysis and semiotic
research. For such purposes, four principal
components can be distinguished in most postcards.
The first is a pictorial representation: a
photograph, painting, drawing, or caricature covering
one side of the postcard. The topics, actual
contents and composition vary widely. Historically,
however, a general trend can be observed, from
contextualised, metonymic representations of ordinary
life, to decontextualised, conventionalised
�though often mystified) metaphoric representations
of destinations, attractions and facilities
�Albers and James 1983). Contemporary postcards
in particular tend to be flashy, spectacularised and
highly embellished, especially if they present
popular destinations; their very artificiality possibly
impairs their credibility as realistic representations
for modern, sophisticated tourists.
Second, the pictorial representations are normally
accompanied by a caption, which names,
localises, describes or classifies, and sometimes
interprets or extols, the pictorial representation.
Captions initially tended to be brief, and became
gradually more elaborate. They are sometimes
written in the language of the tourists' countries of
origin rather than the national language. Third, if
the postcard has been mailed, it contains on the
obverse a message, which may or may not relate to
the pictorial representations; if it does, it may
supply significant information on the attitude of the
tourist to the depicted topic �Baldwin 1988).
Fourth, if mailed, the postcard also includes an