Repositório RCAAP

The liberalisation of air transport created a new era in the sector. The entry of low-cost carriers triggered dynamism and consequently changed the behaviours of the demand and supply of air transport services. The volume of traffic at Portuguese airports increased from 17 million passengers in 2002 to more than 30 million in 2012, representing cumulative growth of 75%. The commitment to low-cost carriers (LCCs) was a determining factor for this growth in that, in 2012, these carriers recorded a market share of 33%. This study aims to analyse the evolution of LCC air traffic in Portugal and its impact on regional economic development. Through a model of cost–benefit analysis, we determine the costs, benefits and net welfare in the developmet of the region driven by the LCC routes of 4 Portuguese airports, Faro, Lisbon, Funchal and Porto, between 2005 and 2012. The methodology proves the existence of a positive net impact driven by LCCs on the local economy, directly through job creation and increased consumption in the tourism sector and indirectly by the increased demand from other sectors.

This paper addresses the relationship between the development of the airline industry and tourism. On the one hand, air transport has triggered the growth of tourism throughout the world, while, on the other hand, tourism has acted as a complementary product for developing new flight routes. This process has intensified with the emergence of low-cost carriers. A profound change has been observed in companies’ strategy to adapt to the demands of this type of market. To conduct this study, a review of the existing literature related to tourism and lowcost carriers was carried out. To conclude, an analysis of the positioning and price-fixing strategies of low-cost airlines operating on some of the most important tourist routes in Europe was performed. The results indicate different level of fares among the five companies in the sample, especially between Ryanair and easyJet, but similar pricing behaviour on the routes studied.

The replacement of non-scheduled traffic by scheduled services is one of the main impacts that the liberalisation of the European Common Aviation Area has had on tourist airports. In the case of Faro, between 1996 and 2013, this shift led to both fewer routes served and reduced catchment areas in the source markets for tourists visiting the Algarve. The strategy pursued by Ryanair, the airport’s main carrier, focuses on connections that already channelled a greater volume of traffic when charter airlines dominated. Therefore, the impact of low-cost carriers on diversifying the number of airports of origin and source markets is limited. Moreover, using the spatial analysis functions of GIS software, we verified that the population linked to the theoretical catchment areas of airports with a non-stop flight to Faro in 2013 was smaller than that of the airports with such connections in 2000. The decision-making process involved in the policy incentives for introducing new routes could benefit greatly from this type of analysis.

Airport benchmarking depends on airports’ operational performance and efficiency indicators, which are important for business agents, operational managers, regulatory agencies, airlines and passengers. There are several sets of single and complex indicators to evaluate airports’ performance and efficiency as well as several techniques to benchmark such infrastructures. The general aim of this work is twofold: to balance the data envelopment analysis (DEA) and multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) tools and to show that airport benchmarking is also possible using a multicriteria decision analysis tool called Measuring Attractiveness by a Categorical Based Evaluation Technique (MACBETH). Whilst DEA measures the relative performance in the presence of multiple inputs and outputs, MCDA/ MACBETH uses performance and efficiency indicators to support benchmark results, being useful for evaluating the real importance and weight of the selected indicators. The work is structured as follows: first, a state-of-the-art review concerning either airport benchmarking and performance indicators or DEA and MCDA tool techniques; second, an overview of the impacts on airports’ operational performance and efficiency of emergent operational factors (sudden meteorological/natural phenomena); third, two case studies on a set of worldwide airports and Madeira (FNC) Airport; and fourth, some insights into and challenges for future research that are still under development.

In this paper, we argue that networks are fundamental instruments for the development of the business system of airports’ landside area. We propose value network analysis (VNA) to gain a better understanding of how processes and people create value in airports’ network ecosystem. This methodology makes it possible to understand and visualise the internal and external value networks, mapping the players and their interrelationships and thus capturing the dynamics of the airports’ entire system. Applying value network analysis (VNA) to the air traveller experience, we conclude that this approach provides a network ecosystem perspective on how processes and people create value within the air traveller experience network. For the validation of this scenario, several interviews were conducted with experts.

Hotel employees’ job satisfaction is very important to their performance. In a systematic review of the previous literature on hotel employees, it was found that the most studied variable was job satisfaction; there were no other systematic reviews on the topic. In this review, performed in the Web of Knowledge, Web of Science (Social Sciences Index Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index, Medline), and Science Direct between 2000 and 2014, 51 studies were found. These studies indicated that satisfaction is crucial to the financial performance and prosperity of hotels and acts a mediator in customer satisfaction. Contributing to greater satisfaction are factors such as greater autonomy and independence, greater power of decision making, flexible schedules, better working conditions, and training. The factors that promote dissatisfaction are wages and reduced benefits. The studies also indicated that a higher level of job satisfaction can have a direct impact on increasing the financial performance of the hotel. The implications of this study for hoteliers and directors relates to the creation of adequate working conditions to increase job satisfaction and provide hotel employees with a greater sense of subjective well-being.

The present review aims to determine the main findings concerning positive psychology in older adults. We used the electronic databases Web of Science and EBSCO, which were efficient tools to find the necessary heterogeneity for the selection of studies published between 2005 and 2015, through the following keywords: “Positive Psychology” and “Older”. After selecting 12 studies, they were assessed regarding the following information: (a) source; (b) setting; (c) number of older adults (participants); (d) average age (SD); (e) inclusion criteria for each study; (f) instruments; and (g) the results of our investigative question. The results show that interventions with a positive psychology approach are favorable to the reduction of symptoms (anxiety and depression) and the increase of well-being; and positive psychology constructs have the same impact on well-being and on reducing symptoms, portraying a promising approach to public health. Our investigation showed the necessity to develop a new perspective on aging. Some of the assessed studies reported that it is possible to achieve this with the inclusion of positive psychology, which can facilitate this development.

The aim of this work was to adapt and develop a Portuguese manual for the Observer Measure of Affect Regulation (O-MAR; Watson & Prosser, 2006), an observational measure of clients’ emotion regulation in psychotherapy. Since the scale has not yet been adapted to Portuguese, initially a translation was performed. Then, to elaborate the manual, the middle 20 minutes of 20 therapy sessions were observed and classified and 2 illustrative excerpts were selected by consensus for each level of analysis of the various domains of the scale. All these videotaped sessions were collected in a randomized clinical trial carried out in Portugal for the treatment of depression, comparing 2 empirically supported models for the treatment of this disorder – cognitive behavioral therapy and emotion-focused therapy. All the participants were initially evaluated and diagnosed with mild or moderate major depressive disorder, and they attended 16 sessions of psychotherapy.

Summary: A comparative evaluation was carried out of quality of life (QoL) perception in different communitarian residential institutional environments for senior citizens. Method: A cross-sectional comparative study was conducted using a deductive and descriptive statistical method on a sample of 50 senior inhabitants of the retirement village St. Joseph of Alcalar (Alcalar group), 56 senior residents of traditional retirement homes (RSS group) and 52 senior attendees of day care institutions (DCI group). This research comprised two self-applicable questionnaires for elderly citizens, WHOQOL-BREF and WHOQOL-Old PT. We evaluated 158 senior citizens selected from 22 institutions. Results: The QoL levels perceived by the Alcalar retirement village inhabitants were predominantly higher than the QoL levels perceived by the group of RSS residents and the DCI attendees. The trend in QoL results obtained from the Alcalar retirement village inhabitants was not absolute because it was surpassed by the DCI attendees’ results in some (few) areas assessed with both WHOQOL scales. Conclusion: The Alcalar retirement village group globally showed higher levels of quality of life perception than the other two groups of residents and attendees, respectively, from RSSs and DCIs.

At-risk families live under circumstances that hinder their parenting competences, compromising their ability to fulfill their children’s needs appropriately. The complex and multiple-source nature of the adversities that they endure makes family preservation interventions challenging. Because their efficacy largely depends on the extent to which interventions fit participants’ needs and characteristics, the aims of this study were to draw the sociodemographic (individual, family, economic, labor, and child-related variables) and psychosocial profile (negative life events, parenting stress, and psychological distress symptomatology) of Spanish and Portuguese family preservation users while testing the inter-country differences. The results showed that the majority of participants had a low educational level, were unemployed, and were poor. Spanish and Portuguese participants had suffered an average of 5 and 4 negative life events over the past 3 years, respectively, with a high emotional impact. The most common were labor precariousness and economic hardship. Clinical levels of parenting stress were found in 48.1% of the Spanish participants and 39.1% of the Portuguese participants. An important proportion of the participants had clinical levels of psychological distress (Spain = 71.9%; Portugal = 45.8%), indicating the presence of mental health problems. Families’ support needs are discussed and guidelines for interventions aimed at improving parents’ and children’s well-being are outlined.

Promoting creativity and entrepreneurship has been identified as being essential for the development of countries; therefore, it is crucial to implement entrepreneurship educational training projects. Based on this assumption, the Entrepreneurship in the School Program was design and implemented with 281 students and 7 teachers. The results of its development show that participation in this program successfully developed the participants’ creativity, so it was considered appropriate to examine the activity of each pupil enterprise more closely. Through this analysis we found that all the pupil enterprises achieved the project’s objectives and some progressed even further. In fact, due to their dynamism and proactivity, some pupil enterprises carried out strategies that allowed them to maximize their profit margin. The total profit obtained by the pupil enterprises was about €3,400, of which €739.90 were achieved by a single company. On the other hand, the pupil enterprises spent about €10,000 on products from their 39 local suppliers.

The goal of this paper is to contribute to identify a set of resources and tourism products, which can enhance the development and sustainability of tourism in the low density municipality of Boticas, located in the north-east of Portugal. Therefore, this paper tries to: i) produce a first analysis of the tourism potential of the municipality of Boticas; and ii) identify different perceptions of different stakeholders regarding the tourism potential of Boticas. To this end, the content analysis of semi-structured interviews conducted in 2014 to local and regional social and political stakeholders were used. Likewise, in 2015 two focus groups were conducted with main local stakeholders. The results highlight three main facts: first, there are unexplored tourism resources with potential to attract certain niches of tourist demand; second, the region has been investing in the diversification of its supply of leisure and recreational activities, as well as available tourism equipment; and third, the region is facing serious difficulties in creating a local and regional stakeholder network in order to provide an integrated promotion of tourism. We conclude by identifying few policy recommendations on development issues for the municipality of Boticas or other rural areas presenting similar constraints.

Framed by the theoretical context concerning cooperation between tourism agents, the present paper aims to contribute for better understanding South Alentejo tourism agents’ perceptions on the areas in which they can cooperate for promoting development and competitiveness in the region. Furthermore, the paper also looks at the tourist agents’ perception on role that the dynamics of cultural resources play in promotion of development and competitiveness in the region. This paper reports results from a case study conducted in the frame of the thesis developed as requirement to get the PhD in Tourism. Data was gathered by a questionnaire developed for the study from a sample of tourism agents working in the public, private business and associative (non lucrative) sectors. The study results has indicated that valuation of the existing culture, integrated development of tourism resources and products and organization of promotional activities are the areas considered more relevant for the tourism agents to cooperate among them. In particular, leaders of different sectors agree with the need to cooperate focusing on the valorisation of local and regional cultural resources. This is important because the South Alentejo region has excellent cultural resources that, if strategically used, can provide a major differentiating factor.

Tourism is the leading economic sector in most islands and for that reason market trends are closely monitored due to the huge impacts of relatively minor changes in the demand patterns. An interesting line of research regarding the analysis of market trends concerns the examination of time series to get an historical overview of the data patterns. The modelling of demand patterns is obviously dependent on data availability, and the measurement of changes in demand patterns is quite often focused on a few decades. In this paper, we use long-term time-series data to analyse the evolution of the main markets in Madeira, by country of origin, in order to re-examine the Butler life cycle model, based on data available from 1946 onwards. This study is an opportunity to document the historical development of the industry in Madeira and to introduce the discussion about the rejuvenation of a mature destination. Tourism development in Madeira has experienced rapid growth until the late 90s, as one of the leading destinations in the European context. However, annual growth rates are not within acceptable ranges, which lead policy-makers and experts to recommend a thoughtfully assessment of the industry prospects.

The present study aimed to evaluate the understanding of the touristic value of Portuguese overseas monuments during Estado Novo, having as case-study the then colony of Angola between 1959 and 1974, years marked by the creation of the Information and Tourism Centre and the fall of the regime. Thus, considering the reality of the metropolis, we aimed to identify and analyse the evolution of tourism in this territory, as well the understanding and use of historic monuments by a nationalist regime as points of touristic interest and legitimisers of the national colonialism. We argue that during two different but totally complementary moments devoted to the relation between tourism and historic monuments of Angola, there was a real understanding of their touristic value. Besides that we claim that the believers of the touristic value of those monuments were very often advocates of the preservation or restoration of their pristine characteristics, an idea that we can affiliate to the thought of António Ferro to whom the success of tourism was extremely dependent on preserving and emphasizing the picturesque and idiosyncratic characteristics of those tourist destinations. To achieve our goals we have identified and analysed some tourism-related periodicals, thematic studies and legislation.

Attractive public spaces are crucial for tourism. After all, most tourists that visit a city, experience it by foot and increasingly by bicycle. Public spaces have to meet a few minimum requirements. If not, tourists will feel uncomfortable. For instance; a lot of rubbish and graffiti, worn out and damaged street furniture can cause a feeling of unsafety. Attractive public spaces are the ones that invite tourists to stay a bit longer than strictly necessary and sit down and relax. Some of these spaces are quit and green, others more vibrant, well dimensioned and furbished. In this paper I describe a method for defining and measuring the quality of public space and also for predicting the conclusion tourists may draw based on this; “will I revisit this place or not ?” In some cities inhabitants, local shop owners and local institutions voluntarily take the initiative to upgrade the quality of public spaces or even act as ‘city hosts’ to welcome visitors. These kinds of civic participation help to provide the unique experience many tourists are looking for.

This study examines patterns of order and structure in street networks and its relationships with spatial life of two urban neighborhoods (housing estates). It explores the concepts of “tree” and “semi-lattice” as two different ways of looking and thinking about the structure of cities, each one generating a different form of life and community place (Alexander, 1965). The authors propose a configurational analysis of street networks of two urban plans designed according to different city ideologies and historical background. Based on space syntax methodology the street network was represented both as convex spaces and axial lines as nodes of a graph. The network was then analyzed in terms of the mathematical properties of the graph. The objective was to address a comparative study of structural properties of the urban street networks in order to speculate some implications on social life of each neighborhood. Syntactic measures have shown that conceptual designs have different spatial and social patterns both at global and local scales. It was corroborated that the difference between the characteristics of topological properties which reflects the mathematical principle of tree and semi-lattice is responsible for the different character of public life we found in each urban area.

In the last decade, the European Union has approved and launched measures to promote Intercultural Cities, Diversity Management and the Integration of Immigrants in Europe. Despite this European framework, we are now at a crossroads between solidarity and humanity and an important restriction of refugees’ human rights across Europe. In this paper, we try to compare the international approaches to the refugee crisis in different countries in Europe. Data were extracted from Twitter. We obtained thousands of tweets about “refugees”, using this word in six different languages (English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish) from end November 2015 to 27 February 2016 as search strings. We performed a discourse analysis, focusing on the comparison between countries. A qualitative analysis with the help of both Atlas ti and T-Lab software was performed. The results showed a diversity of current discourses in Europe about refugees and the refugee crisis (from solidary to xenophobic ones), some of them very characteristic of particular countries or of local events experienced in these countries. These results allow us to reinforce the idea that we are at a key moment for the future development of Europe, especially regarding aspects concerning living together in cities and villages.

Today’s competition is tough, due especially to emergent information systems (IS) and information technology (IT) support. Managers must continuously cope with challenges to keep their businesses innovative and sustainable. They take most of their decisions based on considerable amounts of data. An important step is to employ strategies based on open innovation: partnerships with people who know the technology better, or how to conceive or run a certain activity, product or process. All these issues and potentials have been explored and supported in the so-called innovation accelerators or ‘boot camps’, either for launching new businesses or supporting their IT/IS platforms. These initiatives are based on a dynamic entrepreneurial and interdisciplinary ambience, which introduces the candidates (mainly start-ups, spin-offs) to consultants, investors, managers, designers, innovators, etc. This study determines where Portugal stands in terms of innovation in general, open innovation (cooperative or firm-based), venture capital adherence and innovation sustainability. It then discusses the results of some Portuguese innovation accelerators (such as ‘Beta-i’ and ‘Cria’) from the point of view of target sectors/markets and the sustainability of accelerated firms over time.

Advances in information technologies have led to the storage of large amounts of data by organizations. An analysis of this data through data mining techniques is important support for decision-making. This article aims to apply techniques for the classification of the beneficiaries of an operator of health insurance in Brazil, according to their financial sustainability, via their sociodemographic characteristics and their healthcare cost history. Beneficiaries with a loss ratio greater than 0.75 are considered unsustainable. The sample consists of 38875 beneficiaries, active between the years 2011 and 2013. The techniques used were logistic regression and classification trees. The performance of the models was compared to accuracy rates and receiver operating Characteristic curves (ROC curves), by determining the area under the curves (AUC). The results showed that most of the sample is composed of sustainable beneficiaries. The logistic regression model had a 68.43% accuracy rate with AUC of 0.7501, and the classification tree obtained 67.76% accuracy and an AUC of 0.6855. Age and the type of plan were the most important variables related to the profile of the beneficiaries in the classification. The highlights with regard to healthcare costs were annual spending on consultation and on dental insurance.