Title: The attractiveness of Portugal as a tourist destination, by mature domestic travellers

Authors: Joana M.O. Neves

Addresses: Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias de Lisboa, Campo Grande, nº 376, 1749-024 Lisboa, Portugal; CEG-IST – Technical University of Lisbon, Instituto Superior Técnico, DEG, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal

Abstract: This paper aims to ascertain the attractiveness of a tourist destination for mature domestic travellers, analyse the relation between this attractiveness and their socio-demographic characteristics and identify groups in line with the perceived attractiveness. A theoretical framework is proposed based on an attractiveness-based theory perspective which integrates attributes and products of attraction as relevant external forces which attract tourists to a destination. The results show that there are six different groups, five of which have a positive view of the destination|s attractiveness, and one group with a negative view. Furthermore, a direct relation was found between the attractiveness of the tourist destination and some of the socio-demographic characteristics of the surveyed subjects.

Keywords: destination attractiveness; tourist destinations; mature travellers; domestic travellers; Portugal; tourism.

DOI: 10.1504/WREMSD.2012.044486

World Review of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development, 2012 Vol.8 No.1, pp.37 - 52

Published online: 18 Sep 2014 *

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