Tourism planning in the Azores and feedback from visitors

Abstract

Abstract Tourism planning is increasingly a fundamental process for qualifying and increasing the competitiveness of tourist destinations, especially when it is required to take into account the new needs of tourists and the global trend towards meeting the principles of sustainable tourism. This study aims to analyse the improvements that, in the opinion of visitors, should be implemented in Ponta Delgada, the largest hub of tourism activity in the Azores (Portugal), detecting differences between specific groups of visitors, in order to contribute to territorial organisation and the optimisation of tourism experiences. 400 answers to a survey distributed among tourists who visited this Azorean municipality were analysed, using several statistical methods, such as the chi-square test of independence and some Hierarchical Cluster Analysis algorithms. The main conclusions refer to the statistically significant associations between the mean of transport used to travel and views of some aspects to be improved, with signs of patterns in visits and critical attitude. Resumo O planeamento turistico e cada vez mais um processo fundamental para a qualificacao e aumento de competitividade dos destinos turisticos, principalmente quando ha que ter em conta as novas necessidades dos turistas e a tendencia global de atender aos principios do turismo sustentavel. Este estudo pretende analisar as melhorias que, na opiniao dos visitantes, devem ser implementadas em Ponta Delgada, o maior polo dinamizador da atividade turistica dos Acores, contribuindo, assim, para a organizacao territorial e para a valorizacao das experiencias turisticas. Foram analisadas as respostas de 400 questionarios administrados a turistas que visitaram este concelho, utilizando diversos metodos estatisticos, de onde se destacam o teste de independencia do qui-quadrado e alguns algoritmos de Analise Classificatoria Hierarquica Ascendente. As principais conclusoes referem-se a existencia de associacoes estatisticamente significativas entre o meio de transporte utilizado para viajar e as percecoes acerca de alguns aspetos que podem ser melhorados.