Translation by Diana Taborda
A study conducted by the University of Coimbra (UC) assessed the impact of Covid-19 on the summer holidays of the Portuguese, concluding that the pandemic provided opportunities for (re)discovering the country, especially rural regions.
According to the authors, Susana Silva and Paulo Carvalho, of the Department of Geography and Tourism of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Coimbra (FLUC), the results present "an opportunity to change the paradigm of tourism to a long claimed more sustainable model, especially through the redistribution of tourist flows, and to invest in the domestic market and domestic tourism, not only in the short term, but also to be extended and intensified in the post-pandemic".
They further add that this research also contributes "to the various local actors and tourism operators adapting to the consumption trends arising from the pandemic".
Entitled "Impact of COVID-19 on summer holiday behaviours: evidence from Portugal" and published in the international tourism and hospitality research journal Anatolia, the study aimed to assess the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the traditional summer holiday behaviours of the Portuguese.
To this end, the researchers applied a survey after the summer holiday period, targeting all national tourists who had at least one holiday period in Portugal between June and September 2020.
Compared to holidays before the pandemic, beaches remained the most popular destination for most respondents, although there was a slight decline. However, the countryside, mountains and rivers in the interior areas of Portugal became more popular.
The scientific article is available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/13032917.2022.2048404.