Tourism development index applied to the Northern region of Portugal

Abstract

The main aim of this study was based on applying the tourism development index, developed by Coelho (2010), to the North of Portugal - NUT II - and analysing its behaviour since 2009. Results showed that NUTT II North region has evolved from the exploration stage in 2009 to involvement stage in 2010 and is a region that is growing as a tourism destination in the involvement stage. It is expected that there will be continuity of this growth. And, that in the medium term the NUT II North region enters the next phase of the Tourism Area Life Cycle, which is the development phase.