Steady tourists’ relationship with a mature destination. The case of Portugal

Abstract

This article assesses how the last-visit features and the socio-demographic profile of tourists moderate repeat-visit patterns to Portugal, a mature destination where the persistence of loyal visitors has made its mark on tourism development. The methodology used is a survival analysis to assess the tourists’ repeat patterns. To test the model, a database of 4612 observations was employed, which was obtained from a survey of international tourists. Only repeat visitors with more than two visits over the years were considered for the purpose of the research. The study finds that a combination of socio-demographic characteristics, expectation/satisfaction, trip purpose, pull motivations and regional destination has a positive effect on repeat patterns, confirming that tourists’ willingness to repeat visits to Portugal is far from ceasing. Based on those tourists to Portugal who declared when they started to visit the country, and the number of years of their repeat visits, the article contributes to the literature by introducing new methods of assessing tourists’ repeat patterns for destinations.