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- The Satisfaction of the Nordic tourist with the Azores as a destinationPublication . Vieira, José Cabral; Couto, Gualter; Pimentel, Pedro; Menezes, António Gomes de; Moniz, Ana Isabel Arruda; Sousa, FábioTourism is considered a strategic economic sector for the outermost regions of Europe. In the Azores, Tourism is a dynamic and growing activity. New segments have emerged, such as ecological and sustainable tourism, nautical tourism and wildlife tourism. Currently, new niches are being developed around sports (surf, paragliding and diving are recent examples), religion, nature, healthcare and wellbeing. The latest products and services serve as alternatives or complements to the more traditional venues of hotels and restaurants. The latter have managed to continuously upgrade their standing in global markets via large investments in modernization, innovation and employee training. Progressively, the Azores are becoming a desirable destination to inhabitants of modern and stressful urban areas of Europe and North-America. Specifically, Northern European markets are considered strategic for the region. The typical Nordic Tourist seeks products and services easily found in the Azorean touristic market. Also, visitor inflows from Northern Europe can mitigate the effects of seasonality, a phenomenon still very visible in the region’s sector. Because tourism is a very competitive business worldwide, it is crucial to employ policies that enhance competitiveness. It is reasonable to argue that these policies should be guided by accurate knowledge of the strong and weak characteristics of the Azores, as a destination competing in a global market. Under this context, this paper seeks to comprehend how the typical Nordic visitor feels pleased with his stay in the Azores. Using a large database of responses from tourists, we employ econometric methods to assess the degree of satisfaction of the average Nordic visitor with the Azores as a destination.
- Banking Products In PortugalPublication . Couto, Gualter; Pimentel, Pedro; Toste, Luís Miguel da SilvaThe offerings of financial products to investors have evolved considerably over the last decades. This study was undertaken to understand the importance of financial products in Portugal for banks and private clients. Different financial products can provide to banks an important role on their revenues and liquidity. For clients allows to invest their savings according the risk, complexity and potential return they pretend be exposed. Financial products can be divided into four groups: deposits, investment funds, securities, and insurance banking. The six largest banks with Portuguese headquarters were identified based on an analysis of net asset value, and the products offered were analyzed. It was found that on an overall basis, the offerings of financial products available in banks are rather diverse and, at the same time, uniform. It was also noted that investment decisions are dependent on the investors and there are financial innovations that attract differentiated savings.
- High Speed rail transport valuation and conjuncture shocksPublication . Couto, Gualter; Nunes, Cláudia; Pimentel, PedroIn the present paper we derive the optimal investment policy of investment in the high speed rail (HSR) project, under uncertainty, using the real options analysis (ROA) framework. We assume that the HSR demand, the main source of uncertainty, follows a geometric brownian motion with random jumps, complying with abrupt change of level caused by random events. The occurrence of such events is caused by external shocks. We assess the impact of these shocks in the HSR demand threshold, along with the investment opportunity value, and the option to differ. We consider several distributions for these jumps, and we compare with the base-line case (where exogeneous jumps are not considered).
- Creative tourism on islands : a review of the literaturePublication . Baixinho, Alexandra; Santos, Carlos; Couto, Gualter; Albergaria, Isabel Soares de; Silva, Leonor Sampaio da; Medeiros, Pilar Damião; Simas, Rosa NevesIn the last two decades, creative tourism has evolved as a burgeoning field, encompassing a wide range of concepts and practices, in di_erent places around the world. From the very beginning, however, creative tourism has aimed to contribute to sustainable development and increased community wellbeing, as an alternative to mass cultural tourism. With this review article, our main objective is to identify and analyze a body of literature that specifically addresses creative tourism in islands, contributing to fill a gap in the knowledge since no reviews with this focus have yet been undertaken. Our aim is to provide a critical overview of creative tourism experiences at island destinations worldwide, addressing the plurality of empirical contexts and methodological approaches found in academic research. This review highlights the key trends in creative tourism, pointing out two distinct approaches: creative tourism in urban contexts, based on creative events, “cultural clusters” or Cultural and Creative Industries (CCIs), versus community-focused small-scale tourism experiences in rural contexts. This paper also provides an opportunity to assess the evolution of sustainable creative tourism approaches in islands.
- Analyzing Pilot Projects of Creative Tourism in an Ultra-Peripheral Region : Which guidelines can be extracted for sustainable regional development?Publication . Santos, Carlos; Couto, Gualter; Albergaria, Isabel Soares de; Silva, Leonor Sampaio da; Medeiros, Pilar Damião; Simas, Rosa Neves; Castanho, Rui AlexandreSeveral authors have shown that some tourism typologies - i.e., rural tourism, nature-based tourism, or creative tourism - have a more predominant role in attaining regional sustainability. In this regard, this paper explores the impacts of five pilot projects of creative tourism on the sustainable development of the insular Autonomous Region of the Azores. Through direct exploratory tools, such as interviews and site analyses, the present study enabled us to provide greater insight into creative tourism projects and their relevance to the development of an ultra-peripheral island region. As part of the CREATOUR AZORES Project, this study is based on five creative tourism pilot projects operating in the Azores, Portugal. As such, it is recommended that the regional government, local authorities, and other relevant actors and players in this region actively support and create strategies to strengthen these projects (and similar initiatives) once they not only contribute to regional development and destination promotion but also promote much-desired sustainable development - once these kinds of tourism, in theory, and practice, counteract the dire effects of mass tourism.
- Perfis de estudantes no contexto do Empreendedorismo : Análise de Correspondências Múltiplas e Análise de ClustersPublication . Sousa, Áurea; Couto, Gualter; Branco, Nélia; Silva, Osvaldo; Bacelar-Nicolau, HelenaA promoção do empreendedorismo pelas instituições de ensino superior assume um papel preponderante. Um dos objetivos deste trabalho é o de aferir o modo como a Universidade dos Açores pode estimular o interesse dos alunos na criação de negócios. Pretende-se, ainda, relacionar as principais dificuldades subjacentes à criação de um negócio próprio com a formação científica dos estudantes. Apresentam-se as conclusões mais relevantes obtidas com base na análise dos dados recolhidos, com a aplicação da Análise de Correspondências Múltiplas e da Análise de Clusters. Verificou-se que a maioria dos estudantes tem uma baixa propensão empreendedora, tendo também sido encontrada uma tipologia de iniciativas académicas promotoras do empreendedorismo, com base nas perceções dos estudantes.
- Introducing random investment in high speed rail transport valuationPublication . Couto, Gualter; Nunes, Cláudia; Pimentel, PedroIn this paper, we extend Couto et al. (2012) high-speed rail (HSR) transport valuation model based on real options analysis, in order to embrace random investment. Optimal timing to invest, value of the option to defer and investment opportunity value are assessed considering uncertainty upon HSR demand and investment expenditures, both following a geometric Brownian motion with jumps driven by Poisson processes. Numerical results presented, showing the consistence with the former model and the additional uncertainty impact.
- Tourism development potential in an insular territory : the case of Ribeira Grande in the AzoresPublication . Couto, Gualter; Pimentel, Pedro; Ponte, João Crispim Borges daThe Autonomous Region of the Azores is one of the most sustainable destinations in the world. Being an archipelago comprised of nine small islands, quality and sustainability are critical features in the tourism sector, inducing the need for thorough and technical strategic development processes. Ribeira Grande is an important municipality in the Azores, which envisioned tourism as a strategic sector to develop when the partial liberalization of the air passenger transport sector occurred in 2015. However, this destination had little tourism maturity and competitiveness and required some structural planning work. The development of a strategic plan for tourism for the municipality of Ribeira Grande, including the selection of tourism products, is explained in detail in this article, which highlights the main challenges and results of the process.
- Sustainable creative tourism on islands and the pandemic: The Creatour Azores projectPublication . Baixinho, Alexandra; Santos, Carlos; Couto, Gualter; Albergaria, Isabel Soares de; Silva, Leonor Sampaio da; Medeiros, Pilar Damião; Simas, Rosa NevesAs the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was felt worldwide, the tourism sector was forced to seek ways of reinventing itself. Two decades prior to this crisis, in varied rural areas and island contexts, small-scale, community-based creative tourism had appeared as a sustainable place-making solution to foster place vitality, competitive distinctiveness, regenerative development and destination resilience. From an island perspective, this article presents the theoretical framework, methodological approaches, and empirical practices of the Creatour Azores project, which was carried out in the North Atlantic archipelago of the Azores from 2019-2022. Given this timeframe, the investigators and pilot projects that implemented this research-practice project were confronted with the COVID-19 pandemic, which accentuated the isolation and remoteness that tend to characterize islandscapes, especially peripheral islands such as the Azores. At the same time, however, this devastating global pandemic, which impacted the tourism sector especially, ended up offering unexpected opportunities along with special challenges, seeming to underscore the relevance of studies focused on the isolation and remoteness that characterize islandscapes. After describing the project methodologies and practices, as well as the adjustments adopted due to the pandemic, this article considers future possibilities for creative tourism on islands, in general, and in the Azores.