Quantitative analysis of hospitality and rural tourism supply and demand in Viseu Dão Lafões Region

Abstract

At a time that calls for tourism diversication and integrated accommodation, this work aimed to perform a quantitative analysis of tourism enterprises, particularly in Hotels and similar establishments and Rural Tourism. The analysis focused on Viseu Dão Lafões Region, an inland region that has sought to assert itself in terms of tourism, revealing a growth in tourist activity compared to the remaining Centro Region in the period under review, 2014-2018. Data was obtained from the National Institute of Statistics. Our study suggested that, the accommodation provided in the Rural Tourism/Housing Tourism modality is preponderant for the socio-economic development of most municipalities in the region. However, these modalities, in relation to Hotel establishments, were associated with lower accommodation capacity, fewer guests, fewer overnight stays and lower net bed occupancy rate. We used GIS as spatial visualization tool of some results.