José de Freitas Santos

Tourists’ perceptions of world heritage destinations : the case of Guimarães (Portugal)

Guimarães is a UNESCO world heritage site, deemed as such in 2001 and hosted the 2012 European Capital of Culture. This paper examines the profile, destination image, and motivations of tourists’ visiting behaviors in Guimarães before the cultural event. Based on survey responses from 276 tourists, we found that tourists arriving in Guimarães had previously visited the two most important cities in the northern part of Portugal. These respondents were relatively young and well educated compared to the average tourists that visited Portugal. The results suggest that many tourists were aware of the city status as a world heritage site that encompasses a historic center, monuments, and architectural buildings. Furthermore, these perceptions shape the image of Guimarães, as the factor analysis indicates that “historical background and functionality” was the most reliable and valid factor behind the choice of visiting the city.

The Portuguese online wine buying consumer : characteristics, motivations and behaviour

Purpose – This purpose of this paper is to investigate the main characteristics, buying habits, motivations, influences, and overall satisfaction of Portuguese online consumers of wine, as well as to assess whether this market segment can be considered a niche.Design/methodology/approach – A survey was conducted in a Portuguese online wine shop during the last three months of 2009. The questionnaire included questions about the consumers’ socio‐demographic characteristics, motivations, buying habits and factors influencing online buying behaviour. The questionnaires were delivered by e‐mail to regular and new customers when a transaction was processed online. Of the 82 questionnaires received, 74 were sufficiently complete to be used in the study.Findings – The online wine market can be considered a niche in Portugal. As the authors’ empirical work shows, this segment is mainly composed of young, male, well‐educated, high‐income consumers who buy wine online from home often less than once a month. They ar...

Region-based business strategies: a portuguese case study

Purpose – Small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) located in particular geographical areas are producing and selling regional products to domestic and foreign markets. Most of the local activities are embedded in historical tradition and geographic, cultural and social specificity. This article aims to investigate the effect of local environment on the success of two Portuguese SMEs.Design/methodology/approach – The authors use case study methodology to understand whether local environment influences the nature of the competitive advantage of the small firms and their ability to gain access to resources that enable them to compete with the industrial low price substitutes produced by larger firms.Fingings – The key conclusion of the study is that the two firms analysed rely strongly on the specific characteristics of the local environment and on partnerships with local producers (raw materials or products) in order to achieve the economic scale that allows them to compete in the domestic and foreign mark...

Cultural mega-events and the enhancement of a city's image: differences between engaged participants and attendees

ABSTRACT A citys image can serve as the basis upon which to develop a strong sense of community. This, in turn, fosters trust and cooperation which may attract tourists and investment, and drive regional economic growth. One strategy to enhance a citys image is to host cultural mega-events. This study focuses on Guimarães, one of the European Capitals of Culture of 2012, and adopts a marketing communication perspective to explore issues of city image. The objective of the study reported was to understand whether images of Guimarães improved after it hosted the cultural mega-event. To attain this goal, we compare the perceptions of residents who participated in the event (engaged participants) and attendees. Several significant findings are reported and their implications for event managers and public policy administrators are presented, along with the limitations of the study.

Resident’s Perceptions on Impacts of Hosting the Guimarães 2012 European Capital of Culture: Comparisons of the Pre- and Post Periods

This chapter investigates residents’ perceptions on the impacts of hosting the 2012 European Capital of Culture (ECOC) in a before-and-after approach. Two surveys were applied to residents in Guimaraes, one in the pre-event (2011) and another in the post-event period (2013). After a factor analysis, the results of t-tests indicate that there were significant differences between the before and after 2012 ECOC samples in two positive impact factors (Investment and immaterial benefits and Economic and social benefits) and in one negative impact factor (Economic, social and environmental cost).