Outdoor tourism in the North of Portugal from the perspective of tourist entertainment companies (TEC)

Based on the perception of those responsible for Tourist Entertainment Companies (TEC), the objective of the research is to contribute to the characterization of Outdoor Tourism (OT). Exploratory qualitative research was carried out through 38 in-depth individual interviews. The territory geography, the experiences, and the internal market were considered relevant aspects. In addition, seasonality and climate were identified as significant factors in defining the offer, which can favour the preservation of the environment. Moreover, the risk of the activities was considered low. The interviewees suggested integrating everyone involved in a network to explore the region's potential, as well as to support activities and promote the region. The radical experience, adventure, and getting out of the routine were identified as motivations for the search, as well as contact with nature and the landscape. The research is limited to the North Region of Portugal, and it brings together the most different needs, desires, and expectations for tourism demand. Strengthening OT can favour employability and, consequently, economic and social balance while promotion of the activity can be explored through the customers' previous experience. The evaluations, testimonials, and word of mouth (WOM) being added value that can be optimized through social networks and digital marketing.This project is being carried out within the scope of the TURNOUT Project-Development of Outdoor Tourism of Northern Portugal, POCI-01-0145-ERDF-032289, financed by the European Investment Fund Regional Development (ERDF) through the Operational Program of Competitiveness and Innovation (POCI) and the Foundation for Science and Technology, IP (OE). UNIAG, R&D unit funded by the FCT-Portuguese Foundation for the Development of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education. “Project Code Reference: UIDB/04752/2020”. This project also thanks to the reviewers of the ICTR21 conference for their improvement inputs to the paper.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Monitoring of outdoor tourism demand

The Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) was used in order to understand the tourism competitiveness of the different sub-regions that make up the North Region of Portugal. This index is a measure which helps to analyse market concentration and at the same time determines the competitiveness of the market.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). This work is, also, funded by National Funds through the Foundation for Science and Technology under the project UIDB/04752/2020.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Supply-side perspectives on outdoor tourism in the North of Portugal

Nowadays, the tourism sector presents many opportunities and challenges. Outdoor Tourism (OT), due to the unusual situation experienced by the pandemic caused by COVID-19, maybe one of the main opportunities to promote the local development of tourist destinations. Most of the literature developed in this context has focused the demand side. Therefore, the investigation intended to fill this gap, considering the perspective of the supply side, taking into account a vision of sustainable development. To meet this gap, the main objective is to contribute to the characterization of Outdoor Tourism (OT) in the North of Portugal, and understand the potential of OT in the perspective of supply., thirty-eight tourist entertainment companies (TEC) were interviewed to assess supply and perceived customers’ motivations. Of the seven Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistical Purposes (NUTS), the Northern region was considered to be an area with enormous potential for Nature-related tourist). For the supply side, seasonality and climate were identified as important factors supporting environment preservation. Radical experiences, adventure and getting out of the routine were identified as motivating demand factors, as well as the contact with Nature and the landscape. We have also observed that if we consider the stimulation of the local economy by OT, there is still a lot to do. The evidence pointed to some social imbalance, namely related to employability. Employees were hired according to the evolution of demand, which favours unemployment and social instability. Also, the tourists/costumers are the main channels of communication of the activities; the word-ofmouth (WOM) of costumers’ experiences, personally or through online social media, takes on a prominent role. In this sense, tourists’ online reviews, testimonies, and word-of-mouth can be optimized through social networks and digital marketing. Finally, to evaluate the region's potential for the OT, the interviewees suggested integrating the players involved with the OT into a single network, supporting the activities and promoting the region.The authors would like to thanks the 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 (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/04752/2020info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Genomes of Helicobacter pylori prophages

Nearly 20% of the Helicobacter pylori genomes carry prophages genes. Recently we were able to clearly differentiate four populations of prophages according to geographical origin of host strain. Interestingly we were able to discriminate between Northern Europe and Southern Europe using a phage sequence typing based on 2 prophage genes of H. pylori (integrase and holin) but present in only a minority of strains.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio