Projected image of Portugal as a tourism destination: qualitative analysis of tourism promotional oficial site

Abstract

The growing competition between tourism destinations has been putting a lot of pressure on destination managers in order to project a destination image that allows its diferentiation, having a decisive influence on tourists' destination decision. The image of tourism destinations and the way it is projected thus play an important role, since it influences consumer behavior and allows the differentiation of the destination in a highly competitive tourism market. This research aims to study the projected image of Portugal as a tourism destination through its ocial promotion portal ( visitportugal.com). The projected image of Portugal was analyzed using the information of the website visitportugal.com, and a content analysis was carried out using QSR NVivo10 software. Results show that the association of words mostly used to promote Portugal as a tourism destination are 'beach', 'sea' and 'nature', as well as aspects related to history, architecture and religion.