Browsing by Author "Calisto, Maria de Lurdes"
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- Are Lisbon attractions smart looking for tourist perceptions?Publication . Rosário, João Ferreira do; Gustavo, Nuno; Batista, Manuel José Marques; Calisto, Maria de Lurdes; Machado, Ana TeresaSTRUCTURED ABSTRACT Purpose – This study intends to demonstrate tourists’ perception about Lisbon’s tourist attractions as smart. Theoretical framework – The technology Era is characterized by an increasingly global and heterogeneous tourism demand, who is more and more technology-oriented (Huang, Goo, Nam & Yoo, 2017; Xiang, 2018). Simultaneously, there is a growing implementation of new and intelligent functionalities, shifting the way tourism experiences are consumed, by emphasizing the interactive dimension on tourists’ experience (Li, Hu, Huang & Duan, 2017). This scenario underlies an opportunity for tourism innovation based on technological solutions. Design/methodology/approach – Questionnaires will be administrated to tourists visiting Lisbon. From a list of 28 items, mainly based on Wang, Li, Zhen and Zhang’s study (2016), it is intended to measure tourists’ preferences of smart tourism attractions. Participants will select the smartest attraction, evaluating its performance regarding the 28 items. Findings – It is intended to perform a factor analysis that will allow to extract the factors related with tourists’ preferences of smart tourism attractions. These results will sustain further analysis on comparing the importance attributed with the performance perceived. Research, Practical & Social implications – By demonstrating tourists’ preferences on smart tourist attractions and the gap perceived regarding Lisbon’s smart tourist attractions, this study allows for those who manage these attractions to meet demand’s expectations. Originality/value – Identifying Lisbon’s strengths and weaknesses as a smart tourism destination and provide future directions.
- Environmental sustainability strategies for smaller companies in the hotel industry: doing the right thing or doing things right?Publication . Calisto, Maria de Lurdes; Umbelino, Jorge; Gonçalves, Ana; Viegas, CláudiaThe connection between tourism and nature justifies the environmental concerns from tourism agents, namely global hotel chains. This paper explores the differences between smaller hotel chains and their larger global counterparts regarding environmentally sustainable practices. The research approach is qualitative, based on the analysis of 40 company websites and in-depth interviews with 18 entrepreneurs and executives. Results suggest that environmental issues are, for most companies, not a response to societal challenges (‘doing the right thing’), but a response to owners’ concerns (‘doing things right'). Hotel chains develop environmental sustainability practices, mainly for cost-reduction purposes, accommodating the owners’ demands for efficiency. Notwithstanding, there are differences according to the chain’s size. Smaller companies are less prone to adopt environmental practices and to invest in communicating them than global chains. Concerning sustainability in the hotel industry, most studies focus on specific topics and discussions. A more holistic approach to sustainability to establish a deeper understanding of sustainable business decisions in the hotel sector is scarce in the literature. This paper addresses this gap by exploring the strategic reasons behind the sustainable practices of hotel companies, namely smaller ones. Managerial implications of the results are also derived in this paper.
- How smart are tourist attractions? the case of the city of LisbonPublication . Gustavo, Nuno; Machado, Ana Teresa; Ferreira do Rosário, João; Calisto, Maria de Lurdes; Batista, Manuel José MarquesIn the era of technological "acceleration", marked by an increasingly global and heterogeneous tourist demand, namely its relationship with technology and the adoption of smartphone technology, there is a growing implementation of new functionalities and intelligent functionalities during the consumption of a tourist experience (Huang, Goo, Nam & Yoo, 2017; Xiang, 2018). In fact, we are facing a scenario of changes in which the "new tourist", experienced and autonomous, seeks new genuine and authentic concepts of product, customizable, online, timely and with new levels of interaction and information (Kandampully, Bilgihan, Zhang, 2016). On the other hand, the supply side, looking not only develop technology-based solutions that provide this value, in particular by sharing strategies and co-creation, but also understand, analyze and anticipate the consumer and their needs (big data and analytics) (Buhalis, & Lunge, 2018). In this new context of intelligent tourism ecosystem, this study focus on tourist attractions. Compared to conventional ones, smart attractions include co-ordination processes, well-connected services with in-depth information content, diversified and customized products, best value for money, social and technological engagement, efficient communication and management, as well as various smart tourism services (Boztas, & Hadwick, 2019). The main goal of this research is to realize the extent to which tourist attractions have adopted intelligent technologies and how they are perceived on the supply side, by the respective managers and the demand side, by tourists. Methodologically, the study is restricted to the city of Lisbon based on a set of tourist attractions of various categories which will be subsequently evaluated on key factors duly identified in the literature. At the end, it is expected to evaluate the "smart" performance of the tourist attractions of the city of Lisbon from the point of view of managers and tourists and to diagnose the respective strengths / weaknesses.
- Lisbon's cultural heritage in the light of tourists' opinionsPublication . Machado, Ana Teresa; Ferreira do Rosário, João; Calisto, Maria de Lurdes; Gustavo, NunoOnline social networks are platforms increasingly used by tourists in evaluating points of attraction of a tourist destination. User generated content (UGC) about its tourism experience is considered to be the true "voice of the visitor", while being perceived by others as genuine, as opposed to marketing messages, which can have a powerful influence on other potential tourists. Despite the growing tendency to study UGC in the tourism field, most of the studies are dedicated to the hospitality and trip area, while this research concerns the cultural patrimony based on the analysis of reviews on two museums on Tripadvisor. Furthermore, this work shed new light in this research area through its inductive research method given that one intends to obtain insights from the reviews assuming an interpretative positioning. As this study considers human behaviors in the online, a netnographic research design was applied. Through a collaborative and progressive process and the help of the software NVivo 12, the reviews (n=500) from the last year were analyzed and a codebook with categories (10) and several attributes was created. At the end a fine-grained analysis of the aspects and sentiments was carried out. The main results show that the museums collections in their variety and richness are the most frequent aspects mentioned, followed by the experience of the visit. For both museums the share of positive sentiment ranges from 100% to 40%. The interrater agreement among evaluators on the valence of the reviews varies between 0.87 and 0.92. This research adds more knowledge in studying the phenomenon of UCG in online comminities. Furthermore, as we executed a netnographic research design in this specific area, we provided insights in patterns of the tourists in this industry and by that enable a guiding work for researchers that want to investigate the same or similar tourist attractions. From a practical perspective, there are certain aspects this paper investigated, which can be used as guidelines for manager decisions.
- Sentiment analysis in tourism location evaluation: Lisbon monuments and museums casePublication . Calisto, Maria de Lurdes; Machado, Ana Teresa; Gustavo, Nuno; Gonçalves, Rui; Ferreira do Rosário, JoãoThe tourism sector, with a raising economic importance, increased the importance of understanding how and why tourists evaluate the attributes that contribute to the attractivity of a tourism location. Although there is research on the feedback of those who visit tourist sites and different methodologies for studying tourist sites have been applied, this project seeks to be innovative in the objective of obtaining insights about Lisbon attractiveness as a tourist destination, based on the feedback of tourists in the Facebook pages of the most visited museums and monuments of Lisbon, an interpretation that is relevant in the development of strategies of tourist attraction. Online social networks are one of the most used platforms for tourists to evaluate the attractiveness's points of a tourism destination (e.g. cultural and historical heritage), with this user-generated feedback enabling relevant information about the customer-tourists. This information is related to the tourist experience representing the true voice of the customer. Furthermore, this voice is perceived by others as genuine, as opposite to marketing messages, may have a powerful word-of-mouth influence on other potential tourists. The research methodology will be sentiment analysis. The results will help in the evaluation of the considered places by the tourists, their contribution to the city attractiveness and present insights helpful for tourism management decisions. The results of this study will contribute to a better knowledge of the tourism sector, namely the identification of attributes that contribute to the evaluation and choice of the city of Lisbon as a tourist destination.
- Sentiment analysis of tourist online reviews concerning Lisbon cultural patrimony, as a contribute to the city attractiveness evaluationPublication . Ferreira do Rosário, João; Calisto, Maria de Lurdes; Machado, Ana Teresa; Gustavo, Nuno; Gonçalves, RuiThe tourism sector is increasingly important to the economic performance of countries and a relevant theme to academic research, increasing the importance of understanding how and why tourists evaluate tourism locations. The city of Lisbon is currently a tourist destination of excellence in the European and world-wide panorama, registering a significant growth of the economic weight of its tourist activities in the Gross Added Value of the region. Although there is research on the feedback of those who visit tourist sites and different methodologies for studying tourist sites have been applied, this research seeks to be innovative in the objective of obtaining insights on the competitiveness in terms of attractiveness of the city of Lisbon as a tourist destination, based the feedback of tourists in the Facebook pages of the most visited museums and monuments of Lisbon, an interpretation that is relevant in the development of strategies of tourist attraction. The intangible dimension of the tourism offer, due to its unique condition of simultaneous production and consumption, makes eWOM particularly relevant. The testimony of consumers is thus a decisive factor in the decision-making and buying process in tourism. Online social networks are one of the most used platforms for tourists to evaluate the attractiveness's points of a tourism destination (e.g. cultural and historical heritage), with this user-generated feedback enabling relevant information about the customer-tourists. This information is related to the tourist experience representing the true voice of the customer. Furthermore, this voice perceived by others as genuine, opposite to marketing messages, may have a powerful word-of-mouth influence on other potential tourists. The relevance of online reviews sharing, however, becomes particularly complex, considering social media users’ different profiles or the possible and different sources of information available, as well as their associated reputation associated with each source. In the light of these trends, our research focuses on the tourists’ feedback on Facebook pages of the most visited museums and monuments of Lisbon that contribute to its attractiveness as a tourism destination. Sentiment Analysis is the methodology selected for this research, using public available information in the online context, which was deemed as an appropriate non-participatory observation method. Data will be collected from two museums (Museu dos Coches and Museu de Arte Antiga) and three monuments ((Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, Torre de Belém and Panteão Nacional) Facebook pages during a period of one year. The research results will help in the evaluation of the considered places by the tourists, their contribution to the city attractiveness and present insights helpful for the management decisions regarding this museums and monuments. The results of this study will also contribute to a better knowledge of the tourism sector, namely the identification of attributes in the evaluation and choice of the city of Lisbon as a tourist destination. Further research will evaluate the Lisbon attraction points for tourists in different categories beyond museums and monuments, will also evaluate the tourist feedback from other sources like TripAdvisor and apply the same methodology in other cities and country regions.
- Smart tourist attractions: a metric proposalPublication . Machado, Ana Teresa; Gustavo, Nuno; Rosário, João Ferreira do; Calisto, Maria de LurdesIn the era of technological "acceleration", marked by increasingly global and heterogeneous tourist demand, namely its relationship with smart technology there is growing adoption of intelligent functionalities aimed at optimizing tourist experience. In fact, we are facing an experienced and autonomous "new tourist" who is looking for genuine and authentic new product concepts, customizable, digital, timely, and with new levels of interaction and information. In this new context of intelligent tourism ecosystem (e.g. smart tourism destination, smart city, smart attractions), this study focus on tourist attractions. Compared to conventional ones, smart attractions include well-connected services with in-depth information content, diversified and customized products, best value for money, social and technological engagement, efficient communication, and management, as well as various smart tourism services. Despite the singular significance of intelligent tourism in general and smart attractions in particular, little theoretical knowledge is available on how “smart” should be measure. Based on an extensive literature review, the purpose of this research is to conceptualize a metric for smart attractions. It is expected that this research will provide a theoretical framework for researchers to develop and validate metrics appropriate to smart attractions, as well as give insights to professionals on how to incorporate smart technologies into tourist attractions to improve their attractiveness.