Tourist satisfaction: an analysis of tourists visiting historic centres in Portugal

Resumo

Achieving tourist satisfaction is one of the main goals of destinations, companies and managers in the field of tourism. To better understand this key concept, we have studied other associated constructs that we call antecedents and consequences, such as tourist motivations, quality of experience and loyalty to the destination. It was decided to achieve the proposed goals by conducting questionnaire surveys with non-resident tourists in Portugal over the three high tourist season months, which are regarded as June, July and August. The sample was collected in five of Portugal’s main historical centres, namely, Porto, Coimbra, Lisbon, Évora and Faro. With this study it was possible to confirm that the level of satisfaction of tourists, who visit historic centers in Portugal, is very high. It was also possible to verify the existing connection between the various constructs developed in the research, through the hypothesis test.

Keywords: Tourist satisfaction; Tourist motivations; Quality of the experience; Loyalty to the destination.