Search

This paper focuses on the North of Portugal, as a diversified region with unique natural resources, to create information regarding both resources and equipment and business dynamics; the evolution of tourism supply and demand. This research is a part of a project title “TURNOUT: Desenvolvimento do Turismo Outdoor da Região Norte de Portugal”, with the reference POCI-01-0145-FEDER-032289; funded by the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) (through the Operational Programme ‘Innovation and competitiveness’) and by the Portuguese Foundation for the Development of Science and Technology (FCT), of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education. This work is, also, funded by National Funds through the Foundation for Science and Technology under the project UIDB/04752/2020. The SABI database was made available by the Applied Management Research Unit (UNIAG), according to the protocol between UNIAG and COFACE. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

The northern region of Portugal, in the last years, has experienced the enhancement of tourism demand, which may induce the emergence of an over tourism phenomenon in some particular subregions of the North of Portugal. This phenomenon may cause significant destruction of the living conditions of residents, landscapes, seascapes, air and water quality, causing economic inequalities and social exclusion. The aim of this research paper is to understand if the phenomena of over tourism is present in the North of Portugal and if it changed overtime. The concentration of tourism activity in different municipality subregions can be measured with the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index a well know economic concentration measure. Using as variables the number guest and their expenditure in accommodation, to measure the demand, and the number of establishments, bedrooms and lodging capacity to measure the supply was possible to follow the concentration of tourism demand and supply in the 8 NUTIII regions located in the North of Portugal. The results showed that a specific subregion–Area Metropolitan do Porto–concentrates both the tourism demand and supply in the years 2014 and 2017, despite the increasing values found for all the variables in the 8 subregions. When it is observed a decrease in the levels of concentration are the subregions near by the most concentrate one that increase the share of tourism demand and supply. More rural and less populated areas need more targeted and specific policies measures to attract even more visitors Project “TURNOUT: Desenvolvimento do Turismo Outdoor da Região Norte de Portugal”, with the reference POCI-01-0145-FEDER-032289, and funded by the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) (through the Operational Programme ‘Innovation and competitiveness’) and by the Portuguese Foundation for the Development of Science and Technology (FCT), of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education. This work is, also, funded by National Funds through the Foundation for Science and Technology under the project UID/GES/04752/2019. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

The northern region of Portugal, in the last years, has experienced a growing number of visitors from different countries, which may indicate the emergence of an overtourism phenomenon in some particular municipalities or specific spaces. This phenomenon may cause significant destruction of the living conditions of residents, landscapes, seascapes, air and water quality, causing economic inequalities and social exclusion. The concentration of tourism activity in different municipality regions can be measured with a well know concentration measured, the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index. Using as variables the number and nationality of visitors and their expenditures it is possible to follow the concentration of tourism visitors and expenditure, all over the 8 NUTIII regions located in the Northen of Portugal, and describe the routes of distribution of the tourism indicators from urban to rural areas following a more nature-oriented tourism. The results serve as a dipping compass for more oriented and well-targeted tourism policies. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

In an era of globalization, the growing number of leisure trips led to mass tourism in a scale prone to generate economic growth. However, and despite the economic impacts, mass tourism can also generate negative impacts on ecological, social and economic terms and a need for a sustainable tourism development has been envisioned. Sustainable tourism is related to a more environmentally friendly tourism, while ensuring viable, long-term economic operations, through providing fairly distributed socio-economic benefits to all stakeholders, including employment and income-earning opportunities. Understanding how sustainable tourism can be developed is important for destinations, to identify regional policies and to potentiate its attractiveness to tourists, who are increasingly looking for cultural and nautical activities and experiences in close contact with nature. The nature activities are appealing to firms, not only because of its potential economic profit, but also because they may require less infrastructures and, thus, less costs. Hence, this paper analyses the financial data of tourism firms operating in nature/adventure, cultural or nautical activities in Northern Portugal. Traditional sustainability measurement tools include non-integrated, regional and integrated indicators/indices. This paper draws the conceptual analysis on measurement of economic sustainability. In particular, here economic sustainability encompasses mainly financial costs and benefits and, thus, a financial analysis is performed. Data on touristic firms in the Northern Portugal, by tourism typology, are collected from the National Tourism Registry and financial data are collected from SABI database. Firms operating in more than one tourism typology were withdrawn. From the registered 732 firms, 9% operate exclusively in nature/adventure tourism; 74% in cultural tourism, and 17% in nautical tourism. A set of indicators of profitability and financial structure and leverage are applied to a sample of 386 firms. However, results show that firms operating in nature tourism do not exhibit the highest levels of profitability 8014-1B5A-933A | Goretti Silva info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion