Zélia Breda

The Influence of Gender and Education-Related Variables on Career Development: The Case of Portuguese and Brazilian Tourism Graduates

This study examines the influence of higher education-related variables on the career paths of tourism graduates in Portugal and Brazil, while taking into account gender differences. It analyzes whether the geographical location of the educational institution, the educational subsystem, and the level of academic degree influence the graduate outcomes of Portuguese and Brazilian tourism graduates in terms of employment rates, salary levels, and entrepreneurial profile. Data provide empirical evidence that pursuing a tourism postgraduate degree provides access to better conditions in the labor market and attenuates gender inequalities. In addition, the geographical location and the educational subsystem are important factors to consider when selecting a Portuguese higher institution in the tourism field.

An Input-Output Approach of CO2 Emissions in Tourism Sector in Post-Communist Romania

Abstract Greenhouse gas emissions GHG have a significant impact on the environment. Their dramatic increase is being led by changes in land use patterns, deforestation, land clearing, agriculture, and other human activities UNWTO, 2003 , inducing one of the main challenges humankind is facing nowadays, i.e. climate change. The concentration of GHG in the atmosphere has been growing at an unprecedented rate and magnitude. They have increased since the beginning of the industrial era and accelerated worldwide, particularly since 1945. Global emissions of GHG grew 70% from 1970 to 2004 IPPC, 2008. Countries most contributing to this are the developed nations and, more recently, the BRIC countries, which are going through a rapid economic growth process. Solely, the United States accounts for around one fourth of the worlds GHG emissions. This paper will investigate the impact of changes in the final demand for tourism sector on the carbon dioxide CO2 emissions, using the environmental input-output IO approach. The empirical analysis is developed for Romania, using economic and environmental data. The shocks in tourism final demand will reveal the environmental burdens transmitted throughout the economy of an initial percentage change. The second finding of this paper concerns the decrease in CO2 emissions as a result of changes in CO2 intensity of various productive sectors.

Tourism in Protected Areas: Observations from Kuşcenneti National Park

ABSTRACT The establishment of protected areas has the purpose of ensuring the conservation and preservation of the environment. However, due to the constraints to self-financing, many protected areas are turning to tourism as a source of revenue. Tourism is thus regarded as the key to get additional financial resources for the management of protected areas and to find alternative economic resources for local people living within or around those areas. Evidence from Kuşcenneti National Park in Turkey shows how the tourism development process was conducted and how gateway communities were involved in, so as to strengthen links between tourism activity and the benefits for local economy, cultural and natural heritage.

Through the gender looking-glass: Brazilian tourism entrepreneurs

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the ways in which gender influences entrepreneurial motivations and barriers in the Brazilian tourism sector. As an economic process, tourism entrepreneurship is widely spread in Brazil, with tourism development programs promoting it as a strategy to empower women, however limited research exists on how gender roles influence entrepreneurial ideals. This nationwide study aims to provide a contemporary insight into how tourism entrepreneurs in Brazil are situated within current entrepreneurship theorizing by questioning the complexity caused as gender roles influence entrepreneurial conceptualizations of what constitute motivations and barriers. Design/methodology/approach This study uses online questionnaires aimed, for the first time, at a large variety of tourism sub-sectors in Brazil. Having nation-wide scope, the questionnaires produce knowledge on what motivates and what constrains Brazilian tourism entrepreneurs through a gender lens. Quantitative analysis using SPSS statistical software tests the statistical significance of results and is complemented by the integration of feminist economic theories into the analytical framework. Findings The current study’s findings highlight the invisibility of gender’s workings, as the majority of participants did not conceive gender as playing a role in their entrepreneurial experience. Entrepreneurial motivations and barriers show a departure from past literature, such as the fact that similar numbers of male and female tourism entrepreneurs perceive networking as a significant entrepreneurial barrier. This and other interesting findings prompt for alternative conceptualizations of discourses surrounding women’s involvement in tourism entrepreneurship. Originality/value This study consists of an original contribution to knowledge on tourism entrepreneurship in Brazil as this is the first time an empirical study has been made on a nation-wide scale regarding the role of gender in Brazilian tourism entrepreneurs’ motivations and constraints.

Sports tourism development and destination sustainability: the case of the coastal area of the Aveiro region, Portugal

ABSTRACT There is increasing awareness of the importance of sustainability in sports tourism. Research in this field is nevertheless still limited and is mostly confined to specific areas such as mega-events. The adoption of sustainable management practices by companies offering sports tourism products has been widely neglected. This paper aims to extend previous research by analysing the adoption of sustainable management practices by small and medium enterprises offering sports tourism products, specifically across five sustainability dimensions – economic, sociocultural, environmental, policy, and technological. The methodological approach used in this study is qualitative in nature. A series of 15 face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted with company managers offering sports tourism activities in the coastal area of the Aveiro region in the centre of Portugal. The discourses were content-analysed and the findings reveal that these companies have already adopted certain sustainability management practices in the analysed dimensions. They are likely to hire local people, to establish some partnerships and work with other companies (e.g. accommodation providers), to limit the number of participants in each group in order to avoid exceeding the carrying capacity, to involve local communities to some extent, and to use biodegradable products (e.g. fuels). Nonetheless, much still has to be done to increase their sustainable practices. It is important, among other features, to promote the use of a wider variety of environmental and technological practices and to increase awareness both of the relevance of promoting linkages and of avoiding leakages, namely by buying local products. Moreover, it is important to take advantage of the strong potential of sports tourism concerning social cohesion. The paper also identifies a large range of sustainable management practices, covering the five aforementioned sustainability dimensions, which may be useful to the managers of sports tourism companies and for the sustainable development of sports tourism destinations.