Centre for Tourism Research, Development and Innovation

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Publications

Identifying startups business opportunities from UGC on twitter chatting: an exploratory analysis

Publication . Saura, José Ramón; Reyes-Menéndez, Ana; deMatos, Nelson; Correia, Marisol B.

The startup business ecosystem in India has experienced exponential growth. The amount of investment in Indian startups in the last decade demonstrates the strong interest of the technology industry to these business models based on innovation. In this context, the present study aims to identify investment opportunities for investors in Indian startups by identifying key indicators that characterize the startup ecosystem in India. To this end, a three steps data mining method is developed using data mining techniques. First, a sentiment analysis (SA), a machine learning approach that classifies the topics into groups expressing feelings, is applied to a dataset. Next, we develop a Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) model, a topic-modeling technique that divides the sample of n = 14.531 tweets from Twitter into topics, using user-generated content (UGC) as data. Finally, in order to identify the characteristics of each topic we apply textual analysis (TA) to identify key indicators. The originality of the present study lies in the methodological process used for data analysis. Our results also contribute to the literature on startups. The results demonstrate that the Indian startup ecosystem is influenced by areas such as fintech, innovation, crowdfunding, hardware, funds, competition, artificial intelligence, augmented reality and electronic commerce. Of note, in view of the exploratory approach of the present study, the results and implications should be taken as descriptive, rather than determining for future investments in the Indian startup ecosystem.

2021-09Journal article

Open Access

Can they manage in a sustainable way? The role of international destination awards in beach management

Publication . Yılmaz, Emine; Perna, Fernando; Serdeira Azevedo, Paula; Custódio, Maria João; Çeken, Hüseyin

This study aims to reveal the perceptions of local beach destination managers about the level of sustainability in their management practices. This research puts into practice a comparative study assessing two beach destinations: Mugla, located in Turkey, which won the World Travel Award, and Algarve, located in Portugal, which is a member state of the European Union (EU) that has also repeatedly won the same award. In this context, in-depth interviews were held with tourism offices in selected destinations and qualitative data were obtained through semistructured interviews that were carried out between February and April 2020. As a study outcome, two hypotheses were elected and analysed: "the two regions' sustainable managerial practices differ " and "no difference exists between the regions. " Both regions won the same award, but the EU Algarve destination is still winning the award, whereas the non-EU Mugla destination is not. The findings can be shared with beach destination managers to create or increase their sustainability awareness. No studies were found that compared the sustainable management of award-winning EU and non-EU beach destinations. Because of this gap in the literature, this study will add value to the literature about this topic.

2022-12Journal article

Open Access

Instagram as a co-creation space for tourist destination image-building: Algarve and Costa del Sol Case studies

Publication . Iglesias-Sánchez, Patricia P.; Correia, Marisol B.; Jambrino-Maldonado, Carmen; de las Heras-Pedrosa, Carlos

Instagram is a popular social media platform. Its ability to convey feelings through photographs has become a valuable communication tool for tourism destination branding. The cases of two destinations in Southern Europe provide an understanding of how Instagram can be used to promote a destination’s image by Destination Management Organizations (DMOs). For this purpose, a content analysis is carried out, first of the o cial Instagram accounts of Algarve (Portugal) and Costa del Sol (Spain), and then of the most popular hashtags related to them, showing User-Generated Content (UGC) from the points of view of both destination managers and tourists. The results show that Instagram is a strategic social media platform for enhancing the brand image by engaging customers. Destinations seize content generated by tourists; therefore, the hermeneutic circle of representation is inverted, as photos taken by tourists aim to reproduce the perceived image of a destination and motivate tourists to capture their experiences with the best picture. Additionally, it is worth highlighting, as a main finding, the role of sustainability as a key factor in UGC for DMOs and for Instagram users. This research provides valuable information about designing promotion strategies for DMOs, in order to understand the potential of Instagram in building a destination’s image and inspiring tourism through images.

2020Journal article

Open Access

Safety measures and risk analysis for outdoor recreation technicians and practitioners: a systematic review

Publication . Mata, Carlos; Pereira, Catarina; Carvalhinho, Luís

There is no expectation to suppress all accidents in the outdoor recreation sector; nevertheless, it is expected that all possible safety measures are taken in order to minimize the risk of accidents. The objective of this study was to systematize the knowledge regarding recommended and used safety measures and risk assessments for technicians and outdoor recreation practitioners. We conducted a systematic review on PubMed, BVS, SciELO, Science Direct, ABI/INFORM, Spinger, Web of Knowledge, and Esmerald full text databases, up to February 2021. The eligible criteria followed the PICOS strategy; the included risk assessment studies on outdoor recreation (according to its definition) had methodological quality, were indexed, and peer reviewed. Ten studies, from ten countries, fulfilled these specifications, which focused on different approaches. Five studies focused on risk perception, four studies focused on safety practices, injuries, and risk assessment; three studies addressed safe behaviors; two studies addressed equipment- and risk matrix-related themes. We concluded that there was a concern for this topic, and the 28 mentioned measures could provide important information regarding health and prevention. These measures could be used to develop safety strategies and risk reduction, aimed at reducing accidents in outdoor recreation activities. In order to evaluate the pertinence and importance of the mentioned measures, namely risk perception, safe practices, sport injuries, risk analysis, safe behaviors, as well as equipment and risk assessment matrices, further investigation is needed using experimental or observational designs. These strategies and procedures can contribute to enhanced interventions by technicians with higher security and quality, and therefore, improved well-being and satisfaction of practitioners.

2022Journal article

Open Access

Hotel customer segmentation and sentiment analysis through online reviews: An analysis of selected European markets

Publication . Oliveira, Anderson S.; Renda, Ana Isabel; Correia, Marisol B.; António, Nuno

This study aims to verify how distinct markets evaluate hotels in the Algarve through the analysis of online reviews, in order to identify if satisfaction and dissatisfaction attributes are similar among some of the main markets of overnight stay tourists in the region. Online reviews of hotels in the Algarve, written in English, French as well as Portuguese and posted on Tripadvisor by British, French and Portuguese residents from January 2019 to December 2019 are analysed. After the analysis of 8,596 online textual reviews, the results demonstrated that not only satisfaction and dissatisfaction rates towards hotel attributes differ according to the language, but also that customers from different countries place dissimilar emphasis on hotel attributes. Besides extending the current research on the use of online reviews, the findings of this study also assist hoteliers to identify improvement opportunities. Although many studies on marketing segmentation through data mining have been conducted, this paper analyses the customer satisfaction of relevant tourist markets and suggests up-todate practical implications for hoteliers.

2022Journal article

Open Access