«Abstract
Until
present few studies have been undertaken in Portugal dealing with the
attitudes, motivations, and profile of tourists who visit World Heritage Sites.
Also, few studies have dealt with destination image (e.g., Agapito, Mendes
& Valle, 2010; Lopes, 2011). As far as we know, none have approached the
issue of gender differences in the choice of a Portuguese heritage destination.
Since
cultural tourism destinations need to differentiate themselves from each other,
appropriate market segmentation must be based on a deep understanding of the
customers’ motivations and preferences. Keeping in mind results from empirical
literature (e.g., Silberberg, 1995; Beerli & Martin, 2004; Richards, 2004;
Pérez, 2009; Sheng, Shen, & Chen, 2008), gender seems to be a possible
approach to market segmentation, whether for Guimarães or for other cultural
tourism destinations around the world.
Guimarães,
located in the north-western region of Portugal, is a city of strong
symbolic and cultural significance, and the nomination of its historical centre
as a World Heritage Site in 2001 enhanced its tourism potential. This study
investigates the possible relation between gender and attitudes and motivations
towards a World Heritage Site, such as Guimarães. Additionally, the empirical
approach used in the study tries to capture differences in the perceived attributes
of the city. Commonalities and distinctions within and between groups of
tourists, by focusing on the specific characteristic of gender, were analysed.
The study
addressed two main questions: first, whether males and females have similar or
different preferences in choosing the city as their destination; and, second,
whether there are gender differences in the perception of the attributes of
Guimarães. A better understanding of the gendered nature of the destination is
a valuable cue for shaping products and services according to visitors’
preferences.
Based on
the objectives for this research, a survey among visitors to Guimarães was
conducted during three different periods over a year’s duration in 2010 and
2011, bearing in mind the seasonality of the visitation rates. Also, the city’s
tourist potential is not equally distributed as, in a municipality of 69
parishes, only eight have at least two tourist facilities, and they are mostly
located in the historic centre of Guimarães. Therefore, this study’s population
was composed by visitors to all destinations within the city that have tourist
potential. A questionnaire was administered to a sample of those visitors.
The
questionnaire was applied in the two tourism offices in the city. One of these
is inside the World Heritage area, and the other is in the city’s historical centre.
The questionnaire was self-administered, although each tourist was asked to
complete it in the presence of tourism office employees, who would answer any
questions for the tourists while they were completing the questionnaire.
The
questionnaire integrated ten structured questions with dichotomous and
multiple-choice formats, requiring only a short time to complete. It was
divided into two parts: one connected directly to the research subject
(motivations of tourists), and the other with demographic indicators that made
it possible to define a demographic profile of the respondents (e.g. gender,
age, marital status, education). Of the 300 questionnaires completed, 276 were
validated and submitted for statistical analysis. The remaining 24 had incomplete
answers and were not considered.
Since we
had many variables (21) to measure tourists’ perceived image of Guimarães, it
was decided to partially adapt Meng and Uysal’s (2008) and SooCheong and
Liping’s (2002) process for data reduction of destination attributes,
transforming the original set of variables into four composite factors. To
create the composite factors, the responses for several variables were combined
into one composite variable, considering and adapting the results of the factor
analysis of the aforementioned authors. Independent sample t-tests were used to examine gender differences regarding perceived
factors and individual attributes.
From the
survey results, the most important distinguishing factors were the profile of
the visitors in terms of gender (female: 63%) and education (university degree:
55.2%). These results follow the analysis of Silberberg (1995), who found a
predominance of females and more highly educated individuals travelling to such
places. Regarding age, respondents under 45 years old predominated in this study,
contrary to what is generally common in cultural tourists. However, it seems
useful to consider the claim of Richards (2006 and 2007, cited by Pérez, 2009)
that the segment of tourists between 20 and 29 years old has been increasing
lately.
The results
suggest that both men and women were aware of the main elements responsible for
the city’s World Heritage status, and that the destination is a Heritage Site
that also offers the opportunity to tour the region, which has shown to have a
significant positive effect on male tourists’ choice of Guimarães. Regarding
the perceived attributes of the city, results indicate minor gender differences
with one exception: women expressed more apprehension than males regarding the
perceived security of the destination. This finding is consistent with other
previous gender research stating that women have also shown more concern about
security (Mieczkowski, 1990; McGehee, Loker-Murphy & Uysal, 1996; Meng &
Uysal, 2008). Due to the nature of this issue and the way it can affect the
image of the destination, it should have the attention of local authorities,
even when it is only necessary to deal with a perceived problem and not
necessarily a real one.
With regard
to limitations, the study was not able to clearly differentiate tourists from
other types of visitors. In addition, only visitors who directly contacted the
tourist information offices were asked to participate in the survey. Therefore,
many potential sources of selection bias could be present and the non-probability
nature of the sampling procedure limits any definitive or conclusive statements
about the results. However, the main limitation of this study is that it is
solely a quantitative study. The narratives, preferences, and behaviours of
male and female tourists as envisaged previously were not present in the
survey. This gap should help to investigate further differences using gender.
Furthermore, open questions were not included to allow female and male participants
to clarify the reasons behind their various answers.
Keywords: Tourism
motivations, Gender differences, Cultural tourism, Guimarães.
PAULA CRISTINA REMOALDO [cris.remoaldo@gmail.com]
LAURENTINA VAREIRO [lvareiro@ipca.pt]
JOSÉ CADIMA RIBEIRO [jcadima@eeg.uminho.pt]
JOSÉ FREITAS SANTOS [430jfsantos@gmail.com]
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(reprodução de resumo alargado de comunicação apresentada em Gentour 2014 - Gender in Tourism 2014, 2nd edition, a de correr na Universidade de Aveiro, entre 7 e 10 de Maio de 2014)
