Porto as a smart destination: a qualitative approach

Tourism is a major export industry for many countries and cities (Romão et al. 2015), a context in which the city of Porto is increasingly included as an anchor destination in the Northern Region of Portugal. Also, the city of Porto has been reinforcing its position as a smart tourist destination by betting on the digital channels of dissemination of its heritage, resources and tourism products, on the one hand, as well as in communication channels with its real and potential demand, in different stages of the tourism experience, before, during and after. The intervention of the most important Destination Management Organizations in the region is crucial. The Regional Tourism Entity of Porto and North, regarding the distribution of the interactive tourist shops of Tourism, namely at the Airport, and also Porto Council’s Tourism Department, concerning the support to the activity of companies in technological area and diversification of interaction in its primary communication channel, “visitporto.travel”. This study intends to present a qualitative approach to the consideration of Porto as a Smart Destination, through the content analysis of conducted interviews with researchers related to the sector, information technology entrepreneurs and responsible for the main regional and municipal DMO’s.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Perceptions and Strategies of Hospitality and Tourism Practitioners on Social Media: An Exploratory Study

The potential benefits of social media for the promotion of hospitality and tourism businesses have been well acknowledged in the existing literature. Most studies have, however, examined social media use and perceptions from consumers’ perspective. There is limited research addressing how service providers perceive and employ social media to influence the consumer’s decision making process. Using in-depth interviews with hospitality and tourism practitioners in Hong Kong, this study explores practitioners’ perceptions regarding social media and examines the strategies being applied in engaging social media to influence consumers’ decision making. The findings reveal that practitioners generally understand what social media represent and recognise their potential for business promotion as well as inherent challenges. Furthermore, they employ various social media applications and strategies in attempting to influence consumers’ decision making process. The findings hold implications for both practitioners and researchers.School of Hotel and Tourism Managemen

Tourists’ perspectives on hard and soft services toward rural tourism destination competitiveness: Community support as a moderator

Rural tourism is an integrated part in the services field, and this industry has long been recognized as a valuable tool for economic development in rural destinations. However, the multiplying growth of rural tourism destinations has led to a stiff competition among the industry. Thus, the identification of tourists’ perspective on the hard and soft services components toward the development of rural tourism is a key element in surviving into the rapid tourism competition. The pivotal role of community support as an integral part of tourism product in ensuring sustainable development of rural tourism destination would also being the key indicator for the development of rural tourism. Hence, this study highlighted the importance of tourists’ perspective on hard services (tourism infrastructure and accommodation) and soft services (range of activities and special events) toward the competitiveness of rural tourism destination’s development with community support who act as a moderator. A total of 314 respondents comprising tourists who visited Kampung Semadang, Kampung Telaga Air, and Kubah National Park (Kampung Matang), Kuching, Sarawak has voluntarily participated in this study. To assess the developed model, SmartPLS 2.0 (M3) is applied based on path modeling and bootstrapping. Interestingly, the findings revealed that tourists are more concerned about the quality of accommodation, infrastructure, range of activities, and special events for the development of tourism destination competitiveness in rural tourism destination. In addition, tourists also believed that the existence of community support is crucial in moderating the relationship between accommodation quality and tourism destination competitiveness. This study further discussed on the implications of the findings, limitations, and directions for future research

Impacts of Family Tourism on Families’ Quality of Life – Differences According to the Family Economic Profile

Tourism plays a significant role in our lives and is increasingly becoming associated with Quality of Life (QOL). Tourism offers opportunities to explore new environments, participate in new activities and to meet people as well as relax. While the effects of tourism on the QOL of individuals are nowadays recognized, the effects of family tourism upon families’ QOL are relatively blurred. This neglect is more worrying insofar as it is known that family tourism represents a significant share in the tourism market globally. This study aims to overcome this gap by analysing the effects of family tourism on some dimensions of families’ QOL, using survey data collected from a sample of Portuguese families (N = 825). Moreover, we explore whether the impacts of family tourism on families’ QOL vary across the economic profile of families. This study is of utmost relevance given that families with low income represent a significant share of the Portuguese population nowadays. The results reveal significant effects of family tourism on family cohesion and on the improvement of families’ QOL. The effects differ between families, with families with scarce economic resources being those that feel the effects with greater intensity. The chapter concludes with a discussion on the implications of the results for the design of family tourism experiences and also identifying paths for future research