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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the marketing actions developed for rural tourism lodgings and the effect of these actions on lodgings’ performance.

Data were collected with a questionnaire-based survey, addressing promoters of rural tourism supply in Portugal and were analysed using SPSS. Descriptive analysis was undertaken along with a cluster analysis aimed at identifying groups of suppliers according to the types marketing activities they carried out.

Results show that the majority of the suppliers are engaged in other professional activities, aside from running a tourist lodging. These “other activities” provide the bulk of lodging suppliers’ household income. Moreover, they dedicate very little of their time to managing the tourism lodging and develop few marketing activities. Despite this, there is a small group of lodging suppliers who, even though in minority, show a more entrepreneurial and professional attitude regarding marketing actions. They are correspondingly more successful and more satisfied with the performance of their business.

A more qualitative in-depth case study approach with a systematic triangulation of findings from diverse sources and approaches might have permitted an even deeper understanding of some of the results, such as the reasons for the identified passivity of suppliers or their lack of marketing initiatives, as well as possible solutions to overcome these identified barriers.

This study is important, as there is little existing work connecting rural tourism and marketing. Apart from providing knowledge from theory, the empirical results indicate from a practical perspective some of the potential benefits of assuming a marketing perspective in rural tourism.

This paper focuses on the wine tourist market in the central region of Portugal, and it aims to analyze the wine tourist’s demographic and travel behavior and preferences profile, based on their level of wine involvement.

This paper presents results from an exploratory study with a quantitative design, including a total of 1,029 survey responses from visitors of three wine routes. A K-mean cluster analysis was carried out, and the emerging groups of wine tourists were statistically compared (ANOVA or Chi-squared test).

Participants present a demographic profile of the wine route visitor similar to that found in other studies, with an average involvement with wine. There were three clusters of wine tourists, with different levels of involvement with wine: less wine-involved; medium wine-involved; and highly wine-involved. Significant differences between the three mentioned categories are visible for gender, age and attractions visited and expenses, suggesting the possibility of a differentiated market approach. Additionally, most respondents report high interest in a variety of attractions that are not exclusively wine-related. This finding supports the conceptualization of (particularly rural) wine tourism as “terroir tourism.”

The pandemic context in which data collection was undertaken led to a smaller sample than expected, which was also more domestic than would have been in “non-COVID” times.

This study provides relevant insights about visitors of wine routes in Central Portugal, which may resonate in other wine tourism destinations. Implications for both theory and practice are also discussed.

This paper fulfills an identified need to study the wine tourism market in the Central Region of Portugal and expands our understanding about wine tourists’ profiles, behavior and interests, adding with empirical findings to the debate on heterogeneity in the wine tourist market, the role of wine involvement and of terroir.

The emergence of peer-to-peer accommodation (P2PA) introduces new values and meanings to the hospitality experience. Focusing on the diverse dimensions of the tourist experience, the purpose of this paper is to identify and assess the relative importance of the main dimensions of guests’ P2PA experience and its relationships with perception of authenticity, place attachment and loyalty to both the visited destination and the P2PA.

A qualitative netnographic approach with content analysis permitted the analysis of 250 reviews taken from the Airbnb platform, specifically focusing on P2PAs where guests stay with hosts in the same space.

The results of the study suggest that guests’ P2PA experiences are particularly influenced by the experience dimensions “aesthetic/sense”, “relate/social interaction”, “escape”, “act” and “feel”. P2PA experiences also result in loyalty intentions, to both the visited destination and the particular P2PA. The dimensions “aesthetic/sense”, “relate/social interaction” and “escape” stand out as most influential in determining perceived authenticity. In turn, place attachment is most influenced by the dimensions “feel” and “relate/social interaction”.

Limitations of this research need to be acknowledged: the P2PA guest experience is explored from the restricted perspective of online reviews using passive netnography. Therefore, some criteria of data collection, for instance, gathering only reviews written in English and with more than 80 words, may be limitative in a more comprehensive assessment of the P2PA experience. Another point is, although P2PA platforms such as Airbnb encourage their guests to review the experience, some people are not inclined to do so; therefore, the published reviews may not reflect all possible experiences at these accommodations inclined to do so; therefore, the published reviews may not reflect all possible experiences at these accommodations.

This study suggests a comprehensive analytical framework for assessing the “holistic multidimensional tourist experience”, integrating Pine and Gilmore’s (1999) and Schmitt’s (1999) approaches, thus deepening the conceptual and methodological debate on the tourist experience. It further contributes to a better understanding of the dimensionality of the tourist experience in the context of shared accommodation. The dimensions under analysis and their association with perceived authenticity, loyalty and place attachment are both of theoretical and practical interest, suggesting approaches to improve the P2PA experience as well as the image and success of the destinations where these units are located.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of peacefulness in the tourists’ country of origin in their main decisions and behaviours when travelling internationally.

A sample of 600 international tourists from 49 countries was divided into five groups according to each respondent’s belonging to a country with a specific level of peacefulness, assessed by the Global Peace Index, to test differences in international travel decision and behaviour patterns.

Travel safety is a critical issue to most tourists, while the peacefulness level of travellers’ country of origin is an important key factor for understanding different travel behaviours and safety perceptions held when going on an international trip, namely, regarding involvement, risk and safety/insecurity perceptions.

This is one of the few studies investigating the impact of peacefulness in the tourist’s country of origin on travel decisions and behaviours, based on the Global Peace Index. Additionally, this study responds to the call of the Prospect Theory regarding general consumption contexts, and adds to the Experiential Consumer Perspective, here applied to tourism consumption.

This study provides guidance to destination and tourism industry managers to attract and segment their market according to tourists’ country of origin, in accordance with its respective level of peacefulness as defined by the Global Peace Index, especially in destinations more affected by terrorism, war, political turmoil, crime and other safety risks.

No published study has tested the impact of peacefulness at home on tourists’ international travel behaviours and decisions yet.

The study analyses residents' impact perceptions and attitudes towards wine tourism development in a Portuguese hinterland region. It additionally assesses heterogeneity within the community regarding these perceptions and attitudes to inform wine route managers about possible implications and to aid adequate intervention for sustainable regional tourism development.

Data were collected from February to August 2020 among the residents of Beira Interior Region (n = 272), via a survey, regarding tourism development and impact perceptions (social, economic, cultural and environmental) of the emerging wine route.

Results reveal that the residents have rather positive attitudes towards tourism development with perceived and anticipated social, economic, cultural and environmental benefits. Some negative perceptions were also observed. Differences amongst residents, based on age, education and sector of activity, are also assessed and implications discussed. The latter lie mostly in suggestions regarding sensitization of residents, particularly the older and less educated, and community inclusion in engaging, endogenous-resource-based, co-created wine tourism experience development.

The paper provides an analysis of the community's view of rural wine tourism development, going beyond the generally studied business and market perspectives. The community's perspective is important not only due to its central stake in place development, but also its role in preserving local culture, specifically food and wine traditions, providing a welcoming atmosphere and possibly engaging in innovative, co-creative tourism experiences, permitting the generation of benefits to all involved. Community involvement is relevant from the very beginning of the destination development cycle, and hence pertinent for this emergent wine tourism route as well.

Wine tourism has been growing considerably over the past decades. The literature highlights its relevance in the social, economic and cultural development of the regions where wine routes are located. However, few studies examine residents’ tourism impact perceptions and even fewer analyse the diversity of these perceptions. This study aims to fill this gap, examining this diversity according to the life-cycle stage of the wine route and residents’ involvement with wine and with tourism activities.

Data obtained from a questionnaire-based survey (N = 882) of residents from three wine routes of the Central Region of Portugal – Bairrada, Dão and Beira Interior – were used, with dimensions of perceived impacts tested for internal consistency via Cronbach’s α. T-tests and ANOVA tests were used to compare residents’ perceptions of wine tourism impacts according to the life-cycle stage of the wine route and residents’ involvement with wine and with tourism activities.

Generally, residents perceived that wine tourism generates more benefits than costs, with positive economic and socio cultural impacts standing out, while negative environmental and social impacts were perceived less. Some differences are observed according to the life-cycle stage of the wine route, with both the most and the least developed routes presenting more pronounced both positive and negative impact impressions in diverse dimensions. Also, a moderating effect (however not as pronounced) of working in tourism and (even less visible) of working in the wine sector is observed. Possible explanations of these findings and implications on wine route development are discussed.

This article analyses a subject of great relevance for the sustainable development of wine tourism destinations that has been little studied in the literature. Thus, relevant theoretical and empirical contributions are identified.

This study's main objective is to analyse the role of the consumer's ethnocentrism as a potential segmentation basis and to detect product origin-sensitive groups. The relationship between the consumer's regional ethnocentrism, local and regional identity and corresponding valuation and purchase of food products from a region is also examined.

The responses of 358 consumers residing in two Spanish regions are analysed by means of a mediation analysis and a cluster analysis.

The results suggest the convenience of considering ethnocentric consumer tendencies, also at the regional level, when studying attitudes, valuation, information search and effective purchase of foods of diverse categories and origins.

The main contributions of this work derive from the assessment of consumer ethnocentrism at a subnational level (which is much less present in the literature) and the evidence of its usefulness for segmenting the market and detecting groups of origin-sensitive consumers, which can be useful to companies that produce and market food products in different regions.

In this paper, the aim is to discuss and analyze seasonality of demand within the rural tourist market of North Portugal and corresponding destination marketing implications.

The data (n=2280) were collected through a large‐scale survey in the context of a study of the rural tourist market in North Portugal, from 1998 to 1999.

Results reveal statistically significant differences between those coming in the high versus low season, concerning tourist profile, travel behavior, motivations and perceptions of the destination.

The study results may only be valid for the specific rural region studied, which would make replication studies in other rural destinations desirable to take more generalizable conclusions.

Understanding seasonal market differences and confronting them with the destination's resources may contribute to the development of more attractive products and correspondingly to the destination's ability to attract and satisfy different types of tourists in different seasons of the year. The capacity to thereby improve the destination experience in the eyes of its tourists and to also manage demand, avoiding excessive crowding in the high season and eventually sub‐optimal use of resources in the low, may be an important step for maintaining a sustainable tourism business in rural areas.

The paper aims at contributing to the discussion of how to cope with seasonality of tourist demand, considering particularly the specificity of rural destinations and the global aim of sustainable destination development.