Dom Pedro and its internalization to Rio de Janeiro

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

This thesis studies the possible expansion of Dom Pedro Hotels to Rio de Janeiro. Dom Pedro is a successful Portuguese hotel chain with a huge experience in amazing Brazilians guests and with several important connections in Brazil. Rio de Janeiro is one of the most desired destinations by hotel groups and their main “customer” is Brazilians. At first sight, it seems reasonable to say that Dom Pedro should enter in Rio, but in order to make an educated guess about this question I analyzed several factors. In the first part the reasons why Dom Pedro is successful in Portugal are identified and then analyzed, in a posterior phase it is shown that those reasons could be copied in the new market. A deeper analysis of Rio de Janeiro was followed to find out the country macro-economic context and to provide better understanding of the tourism market in Rio de Janeiro. After a careful analysis of the several strategies that Dom Pedro could use to enter in Brazil, it was identified that a management contract is the best option. Taking all the information that I gathered in to account, I concluded that Rio de Janeiro is a market that Dom Pedro shouldn’t pursue.