"Perceptions of residents of hosting the ´Guimarães 2012 European Capital of Culture`: an ex-ante approach"

«The European Capital of Culture is an annual mega-event, which can be a good way of challenging and engaging local citizens, generating feelings of common citizenship. Besides, it is an ideal opportunity to promote the restructuring of the hosting urban space. However, the success of, both, the organization and the city that hosts the cultural event, depends on the commitment of residents towards it and of the consistency of the tourism attractions and activities supplied, and of the capacity of anticipating and monitoring the evolution of the tourists` preferences. The present study aims to assess the intention to participate and the impacts perceived by residents of Guimarães (northwest of Portugal) of hosting one of the 2012 European Capitals of Culture (2012 ECOC) in the ex-ante period (the year of 2011). Through a convenience sample of 471 usable surveys applied to the local population, conducted between October and December 2011, we tried to identify some of these potential impacts. According to the results gotten, 40% of residents had a low or very low knowledge of the cultural program, although only 11% demonstrated no intention of attending any activity of the event. Compared to the study of García, Melville, Cox and Rodenhurst (2010), referred to the Liverpool 2008 ECOC, we believe it is useful to retain that 57% of the population had a prior reasonable knowledge about the mega-event. The comparison of the mean scores of expected 2012 ECOC impacts by gender reveals that the most valued and least valued factors are common to female and male respondents. With regard to the differences between those that intended to attend the event and the ones that did not, expected participants rated positive and negative impact factors more than did the ones that did not intended to attend.»

Paula Remoaldo

premoaldo@geografia.uminho

J. Cadima Ribeiro

jcadima@eeg.uminho.pt

Laurentina Vareiro

lvareiro@ipca.pt

Mécia Mota

meciamota@gmail.com

(resumo de comunicação, com o título em epígrafe, apresentada nas III Jornadas Ibero-Ameriocanas de RRHH y RSC, que decorreram em Ferrol e Lugo, entre 4 e 7 de Fevereiro de 2014)