"TOURISTS’ MOTIVATION TOWARD VISITING A WORLD HERITAGE SITE: THE CASE OF GUIMARÃES"

"Within the major role that the tourism industry is taking in sustaining and enhancing growth in economies all around the world, the cultural segment deserves a particular look as in most cases, it is playing a leading role. This has to do with the idea of tourists’ visits as a memorable happening and an authentic experience and relates to the psychological dimension of tourist demand. This study investigated the motivation behind the choice of a cultural/heritage destination, and particularly a World Heritage Site (WHS). Taking the case of Guimarães, the study inquired on the tourists’ motivations and perceived attributes of the city to conclude on the level of satisfaction tourists get from their visits and the destination attributes. The methodology used in this research was of a quantitative nature, based on a self-administered survey applied to 325 tourists who visited Guimarães during 2015. In that analytical approach, tourists were organized according to their main visit motivation, i.e., if they were mainly motivated by visiting a World Heritage Site or by other reasons. An interesting result was that despite WHS visitors reporting higher satisfaction levels, the other type of visitors want to return in greater numbers. The study concluded that the destination is performing well but is suffering from not having a consolidated image in the market. Looking at these and other results obtained, several recommendations were made to increase tourists’ satisfaction vis-à-vis the destination by mainly addressing the strategy to be used in advertising the set of products and services it can provide to visitors."

Paula REMOALDO

Laurentina VAREIRO

José CADIMA RIBEIRO

Vitor MARQUES

(Resumo de comunicação a apresentar em TURHIST - II Conferência Internacional de Turismo & História, a decorrer na na Escola Superior de Gestão, Hotelaria e Turismo da Universidade do Algarve (Faro/Portugal) e na Universidade de Caxias do Sul (Caxias do Sul/Brasil), a 10 e 11 de março de 2016)