Aurea Rodrigues has a PhD in Tourism from the University of Aveiro. She is an assistant professor in Tourism Studies at the University of Évora and an affiliate researcher at CIDEHUS from that university. She collaborates as a researcher for Dark Sky Alqueva and she is president of the scientific council of the European Network of Places of Peace. Rodrigues has collaborated internationally in research activities in the USA with Pennsylvania State University and the University of California, Berkeley, and in Italy with the University of Siena. Her main research interests are astrotourism, sustainable rural tourism development, consumer behavior in tourism, and marketing. She has authored and co-authored chapters in books, articles in national and international journals, and has made various communications and lectures at international and national conferences.