Travel preferences of the residents of Guimarães: a revised model of push and pull motives

The historic center of the Portuguese city of Guimarães is a world heritage site (UNESCO) since 2001, having hosted the European Capital of Culture (ECOC) in 2012. In this sense, Guimarães has made a major effort in promoting tourism, positioning itself as an urban and cultural tourism destination. The present paper has two objectives. The first, to examine if an existing push and pull motivation model finds statistical support with regard to the population of the municipality of Guimarães, a cultural tourism destination. The second, to study the role that important socio-demographic variables, such as gender, age, and education, play in determining travel motivations of residents from this municipality. Insight on tourism motivation may be an important policy tool for tourism planners and managers in the development of products and marketing strategies. The empirical analysis is undertaken based on questionnaires administered in 2012 to residents of Guimarães. The present study shows that gender, age and education make a difference with regard to travel motivations.

The role of cultural mega events in the enhancement of city’s image attributes: differences between engaged and attendee participants

In a time of fierce competition between regions, an image serve as a basis to develop a strong sense of community, which fosters trust and cooperation that can be mobilized for regional growth. A positive image and reputation could be used in the promotional activities of the region benefiting all the stakeholders as a whole. Mega cultural events are frequently used to attract tourists and investments to a region, but also to enhance the city’s image. This study adopts a marketing/communication perspective of city’s image, and intends to explain how the image of the city is perceived by their residents. Specifically, we intend to compare the perceptions of residents that effectively participated in the Guimarães European Capital of Culture (ECOC) 2012 (engaged residents), and the residents that only assisted to the event (attendees). Several significant findings are reported and their implications for event managers and public policy administrators presented, along with the limitations of the study.

Residents’ perception of the benefits of cultural tourism: the case of Guimarães

In many cities throughout Europe and the rest of the world, cultural tourism plays a major role in local economic development. Tourism also acts to preserve cultural heritage, as it provides a way to acquire the revenue needed to restore and preserve historical buildings, and encourages local people to value their traditions and festivals. However, tourism success can be a double-edged sword with tourist flows having a strong impact on the quality of life of residents when certain tourist thresholds are surpassed. This paper aims to address local residents’ perception of the benefits of cultural tourism. To capture their perception, a survey was implemented, addressed to both the city centre inhabitants and the non-urban residents of the Guimarães municipality.