The Impact of SARS-CoV-2 Outbreak on the Accommodation Selection of Azorean Tourists. A Study Based on the Assessment of the Azores Population’s Attitudes

• Autor(a) principal: Castanho, Rui Alexandre
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Outros Autores: Couto, Gualter, Pimentel, Pedro, Sousa, Áurea, Carvalho, Célia, Batista, Maria da Graça
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10316/106744; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12239990
• topic: accommodation preference; Azores Islands; COVID-19 crisis; regional studies; sustainable tourism

Tourists’ intentions show many changing dynamics, both in terms of destination and accommodation selection. These changes in dynamics are seasonal and significantly a ected by trends. Therefore, after an infectious disease outbreak, as is the case with COVID-19 caused by a new coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2, these dynamics change on an entirely di erent level and are so far unknown. Contextual research was conducted to define and analyze the impacts of SARS-CoV-2 on Azores residents’ tourism accommodations plans in 2020 by examining their intentions. The most frequent choice was to spend 2020 vacations at the vacation residences of family or friends (24.3%), followed by approximately 20% who chose three- to four-star hotels. A considerable increase in rural tourism accommodation selection intentions was noticed, obtaining the third position with 13.7%, followed by local accommodation (guest house) with 12.1% of the selection intentions. The study concludes that there are massive consequences of the SARS-CoV-2 crisis at the level of holiday choices and social isolation concerns for this ultra-peripheral territory.