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Monitoring tourism flows and destination management: Empirical evidence for Portugal

Publication . Andraz, Jorge Miguel; Rodrigues, Paulo M. M.

We propose the use of a tool recently introduced by Gayer (2010), known as the "economic climate tracer", to analyze and monitor the cyclical evolution of tourism source markets to Portugal. Considering the period 1987-2015, we evaluate how tourism to Portugal has been affected by economic cycles. This tool is useful as it clearly illustrates the evolutionary patterns of different markets, and allows us to identify close relationships with economic fluctuations. We found that German tourism plays a leading role, since its movements are followed with delays by tourism flows from other countries, and exhibits higher resilience to shocks. Also, domestic and Spanish tourism have both displayed less irregular behaviors than tourism from other source markets. On the contrary, tourism from the Netherlands and the UK, have displayed irregular patterns, which demonstrates the urgency to diversify tourism source markets to reduce the country's vulnerability to external shocks and economic cycles. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

2016-10Journal article

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Firm preparation for ISO 9001 certification: the case of the hotel industry in Portugal

Publication . Esgarrancho, Sandra; Candido, Carlos

The purpose of this study is to assess whether companies conduct preparations, such as managing culture, before starting to implement an ISO 9001 Quality Management System (QMS). Based on a literature review, the paper develops a model of firm preparation for ISO 9001 certification and several research hypotheses. The survey research method adopted consists of data collection through questionnaires – sent to hotels of four and five stars, in Portugal, in two different moments (2012 and 2014) – and of a longitudinal data analysis based on non-parametric statistical tests. Results show that the majority of companies conduct preparations before starting to implement an ISO 9001 QMS. However, most companies do not assess their initial situation, nor do they plan for the preparations. One of the significant implications from this research is that a more coherent and integrated approach in ISO 9001 preparation is required. Other implications for practice and for research are also noted. This is the first study, as far as the authors are aware of, that addresses the topic of planning for the preparations that a company can make before starting to implement an ISO 9001 QMS.

2020-01Journal article

Open Access

Tourism growth and regional resilience: the "beach disease' and the consequences of the global crisis of 2007

Publication . Romão, João; Guerreiro, J.; Rodrigues, Paulo M. M.

As a consequence of the international financial crisis in 2007, the region of Algarve, where tourism plays an important economic and social role, suffered a decrease in tourism demand, while unemployment increased sharply. Although tourism activities registered a quick recovery, unemployment levels continued to grow. This article examines the impacts of tourism activities on the sectorial structure of the regional economy, using a Bayesian vector autoregressive model. The results reveal that tourism growth did not automatically create the expected positive impacts on the economic performance of the other sectors, as was expressed by the objectives defined in the regional development strategies over the last two decades. The positive impacts of tourism were concentrated in the production of non-tradable goods and the construction sector, leading to a significant reduction of the weight of the tradable sector within the regional economy, similar to a process of deindustrialization described as the Dutch disease'. The decline of construction activities after 2007 has led to a significant increase of regional unemployment, although tourism growth has returned to pre-crisis' levels, revealing the lack of regional resilience.

2016-08Journal article

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The propensity to bargain while on a vacation

Publication . Kozak, Metin; Correia, Antónia; Chiappa, Giacomo Del

This article assesses how tourists' bargaining motivations and attitudes moderate their willingness to return to Italy, where bargaining is perceived as one of the best ways to deal with sellers. A non-probability quota sampling technique was used to survey domestic tourists in Italy through an online questionnaire which encompassed 26 bargaining values and one item to measure the likelihood that the tourists would bargain at the same destination in the future. The data comprised a total of 812 observations. An order probit model and marginal effects were estimated to measure the tourists' propensity to return to Italy for bargaining purposes. The study findings indicate that tourists' propensity to return for bargaining purposes is taken with the awareness that they will not obtain what they expected; as a matter of fact, they are unlikely to care about the final result but instead engage in this behaviour to have fun.

2017-02Journal article

Open Access

An approach using entropy and supervised classifications to disaggregate agricultural data at a local level

Publication . Xavier, Antonio; Fragoso, Rui; Costa Freitas, M. B.; Rosario, Maria do Socorro

Changes in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) had several consequences on land-use and on the environment. This calls for detailed disaggregated agricultural data with precise geographical references. To tackle such problems data disaggregation processes are needed and a series of studies are being carried out at international level, which still have not taken the utmost advantage of remote sensing technologies by combining them with mathematical programming methods, namely entropy. Therefore, the objective of this article was to provide an approach to disaggregate agricultural data at the local level, taking advantage of the existent up-to-date satellite imagery and an entropy approach for manage different sets of data. The results were compared with other approaches and showed to be coherent, and may be improved further with the inclusion of other information.

2019-12Journal article

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