Search results

This article aims to identify the holiday intentions of Portuguese residents, highlighting the importance and evolution of the internal market and the constraints that lead to a significant decrease of those taking holidays in recent years.

The article is based on official tourism statistics and on an ongoing research by Instituto de Planeamento e Desenvolvimento do Turismo (IPDT) on “the holiday intentions of Portuguese residents regarding summer holidays”.

The article finds that tourism in Portugal continues to grow and, in 2013, witnessed a record number of foreign tourists. Despite this success, domestic tourism showed a decrease, explained by the context of economic crisis that affects the country since 2009. However, other reasons such as professional commitments, and the avoidance of peak season for summer holidays, are also referred as reasons for not taking summer holidays.

Results allow for a clear understanding of Portuguese residents’ profile regarding holiday intentions for summer holidays. The information presented and analyzed may be seen as very relevant in assisting decision makers in their strategy making process.

This article seeks to illustrate the holiday intentions of the Portuguese residentes in a comparative study carried out over a three-year period. The results allow drawing conclusions about the tourism behavior of residents in Portugal during a severe economic crisis.

This paper aims to identify the current state of the Portuguese tourism, its opportunities and challenges based on the conclusions of the International Tourism Forum (ITF)/Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes (WHATT) Round Table attended by representatives of the main public and private entities of the tourism sector in Portugal.

This paper presents and discusses the main conclusions resulting from the ITF/WHATT Round Table. The event was organized by the Institute for Tourism Planning and Development, under the theme “Tourism in 2016: from trends to results”.

The ITF/WHATT Round Table concluded that the tourism industry worldwide and in Portugal, in particular, is facing major challenges that call for innovative ways of managing the tourism experience. On the other hand, world tourism growth was seen as a reality that will remain, and destinations will have to continue working to achieve better tourists instead of getting more tourists.

This analysis provides knowledge about the current state of the Portuguese tourism, its challenges and opportunities while identifying innovative ways and likely solutions to improve the experience of tourists visiting Portugal.

The profiling of the current state of the Portuguese tourism, its opportunities and challenges contributes to the design of more effective strategies to improve the Portuguese tourist offer and the experience of tourists visiting Portugal.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the main perceived impacts of overtourism in Portugal and the reactions of tourism stakeholders in the main Portuguese cities, especially the host.

This study uses a qualitative approach, based on the analysis of news published in Portuguese newspapers between March 2018 and March 2019, applying Bardin’s (2011) content analysis and matching with the theory as proposed by Laville and Dionne (1999).

The study reveals that the main perceived impacts are the evictions and transformation of old residence into short-term rentals (e.g. Airbnb) and small hotels, besides other impacts such as garbage in the streets, gentrification, loss of security and others.

The study considered the period of one year, being a limitation of analysis for contexts within that period, as well as the possible partiality of how the context of overtourism is dealt by newspapers.

This study seeks to understand the context of overtourism and its perception by the hosts and aims to present a basis of tourism planning for public and private sector stakeholders, in order to provide a better visit experience to the tourist, without losing the hosts’ quality of life.

Studies using newspapers as sources of data are rare. The newspapers are considered local witnesses; therefore, they bear important information for several purposes, not just for tourism but for other realities or contexts.

The study explores the concept of sustainability as a measure of tourism success from the perspectives of the Portuguese Promotional Tourism Boards.

The study reviews current approaches to defining sustainability and explores how this can contribute to measuring success in tourism destinations using the case of the Portuguese Promotional Tourism Boards to shed light on the theme issue question.

The evidence that the impacts of tourism are not all beneficial to destinations and their residents is mounting and well addressed by the main world tourism agencies who are now promoting alternative ways for the industry to adopt a more holistic approach to measure the success of tourism destinations. This approach is also being adopted and promoted by some of the world's best tourism destinations.

Based on contributions from the Portuguese Regional Promotional Tourism Entities (ERTs), it was possible to define a successful tourism destination as the one that creates income for the local community and ensures the quality of life of the population; values and preserves local identities, heritage, culture and traditions; and promotes the sustainable use of ecosystems and the preservation of natural resources, while practising a circular economy approach. Based on the same source, it was possible to identify the most important variable in evaluating the success of a tourist destination: the level of satisfaction of residents with tourism.

Discusses economic and employment patterns in Portugal as they relate to tourism and the economic downturn following linked with the SARS outbreak and international terrorism. Relates macro tourism trends to the challenges facing the tourism sector in Portugal and the specific operational issues facing hoteliers: quality management, product differentiation; market diversification; marketing and productivity. Relates these and other issues to a roundtable discussion with participants from industry and education and concludes that a national strategy for human resources training and development is needed, together with a code of ethics for human resource management in the Portuguese tourism sector.

The purpose of this paper is address two questions: “Did the context of economic crisis affect the image of Portugal as a tourist destination? And What were the answers and lessons learned?”.

The authors have no information to assess the effect of the crisis on the brand image of Portugal as a tourist destination. The paper limits itself to what is a first step in this assessment and assumes that periods of low demand for destination Portugal are linked in some way to the economic crisis. The paper examines the UK market demand for holiday travel to Portugal from 2009 to 2013 and additionally the revenue contribution from tourism to Portugal’s balance of payments. The data are analyzed in the context of two decisions relating to Portuguese tourism governance: the anti crisis measures of 2009 and the new model for tourism promotion of 2013.

The paper assumes that during the period 2009-2013 the demand for Portuguese tourism was not affected by the crisis and, if any damage has been done to the international brand image of destination Portugal, its consequences are not dramatic. In fact, the demand for destination Portugal in the UK market remained strong and is higher than the market as a whole. The same applies to destination Greece and the decline in demand for destination Turkey seems to be linked to social and political crisis in the country. Given this context, it is interesting to note that revenue from travel and tourism in Portugal achieved a growth rate that had not occurred before in the recent past.

The scope for analyzing empirical data is limited to the statistical information for Tourism in Portugal. However, it is possible to identify patterns of demand behavior of demand that help provide clues to the variations in tourism flows.

In 2013, the index of overnight stays and income to the Portuguese hospitality industry exceeded that of 2009, but the index of average revenue per overnight stay at current prices was still lower than that of 2009. It would appear that the anti-crisis measures that the government took in 2009 had little or no impact nor do the changes to the tourism promotion Model in 2013 reveal why the Government considered 2013 to be “the best tourist year ever” or in 2014 “an historic year”.

The paper provides a bottom-up perspective, based on observation, measurement and analysis.

One of today’s realities is that, as a consequence of the consolidation of the European economic integration process, the economies of the different member countries of the European Union are becoming more inter‐dependent and the physical, technical and tax obstacles to cross‐border trade are being diluted. At the same time, European policies and regulations have affected all areas of economic activity. The tourism sector is no exception due to the economic, social and cultural importance that this sector assumes for countries like Portugal. The overall purpose of this article is to analyse the implications of European economic integration in the tourism sector. In this context, the article builds on earlier research on European economic integration and identifies its effects in the tourism sector, focusing on the following tourism economic indicators: employment, income, investments, and balance of payments. The relationship between European financial support and the Portuguese tourism sector will be analysed with some related trends identified.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the importance of a sound and participatory strategic planning process for the management of tourism at national and regional levels and its contribution to the sustainable development of destinations.

The case study presented in this paper is based on an academic/industry project, launched to support the practical learning of strategic tourism planning and the strategic management of tourism destinations by MBA students. The Open Academy of Tourism, a partnership between the Institute of Tourism, and the Portuguese National Association of Tourism Regions, was created to support the development of strategic plans for Portuguese tourism regions, while allowing students to test and fine tune a model for strategic planning and managing tourism destinations. To better understand the applicability of this model, 13 case studies based on the same number of strategic plans were developed.

The paper reveals that the effective management of any tourist destination can be enhanced by following a carefully developed tourism strategy which contemplates the involvement of all stakeholders. It also demonstrates that academia can work closely together with public tourism organisations to develop meaningful plans of action for destinations.

The paper highlights the potential and importance of strategy development in tourism, while alerting for the need of a clear vision and leadership of the process to improve success.

This viewpoint aims to present Portuguese Hotels Association’s (AHP) views on the main challenges facing the sector and the need for a closer relationship with public entities and the government in order to gain support and address limitations. This viewpoint also highlights a successful project, HOSPES, a corporate program for social responsibility and environmental sustainability and the impact it has made since its launch in 2013.

This paper analyses the development of the Portuguese hospitality sector in the post-COVID-19 era. It highlights the scarcity of human resources, and how this impacts the performance of hotels and the quality of the service offered. It also outlines the AHP program (HOSPES) that is designed to encourage social responsibility and environmental sustainability as a good practice with real impacts for the market and society.

The hospitality sector is facing various challenges, but its workforce, its companies and its associations are well aware of the responsibility that is entrusted to them in the context of the country's macroeconomic framework. AHP is fully aware of the challenges facing the sector and its operators and it equally recognizes the need for public support by decision makers and government to overcome limitations and move forward.

Despite the challenges facing the hospitality sector, AHP takes the view that it is on the right path to support its members and the wider Portuguese economy in the quest for a more dynamic, profitable, sustainable and inclusive society.

This paper aims to analyse residents’ perceptions of tourism growth in Porto prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, aiming to determine the most appropriate strategies to mitigate negative tourism impacts. Studies on resident perceptions of tourism impacts are still scarce, particularly the ones addressing the topic in the context of Portuguese urban tourism areas.

Data was collected through an online survey, focusing on three categories of impacts: (i) economic, (ii) sociocultural (iii) and spatial-environmental, and the respective mitigation strategies, analysed from the perspective of Porto’s residents. Descriptive and bivariate statistics – T-test and Eta correlation – were used to analyse the collected data.

Respondents who live in the city centre experience specific tourism impacts more negatively, when compared to those living outside the inner-city area. Furthermore, no strong correlation is found between the said impacts and the respective mitigation strategies. However, creating awareness among tourists about acceptable behaviour in shared spaces is the strategy that stands out, as it has a medium correlation with all three impact categories. Most impact-strategy associations are weak, meaning that the defined strategies are not the most case-appropriate, which is something that policymakers should address.

To the best of the author’s/authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to adopt this approach in tackling the negative impacts of rapid tourism growth in Porto.