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This paper focuses on the individuals implicated in the tourism businesses in two rural villages sponsored by a political program of local development entitled "Programa das Aldeias Históricas de Portugal" (Historic Villages of Portugal program). The main aim is to analyse the relationships between the development of the tourist industry and the processes of social stratification. I argue that inhabitants have unequal opportunities of access to the new economic model. In fact, only seldom can residents with worse socio-economic conditions participate in the tourist activity as entrepreneurs. Having no money to invest in the novel sector, they become employees or producers and sellers of handicrafts and home-made food products.