ESHT - Departamento de Hotelaria e Restauração
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Browsing ESHT - Departamento de Hotelaria e Restauração by Author "Azevedo, Daniel"
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- Human resources management and the impact of the restaurant opening hours: an exploratory studyPublication . Azevedo, Daniel; Silva, SusanaThe hospitality sector is struggling with a generalized shortage of manpower to cope with the post-pandemic economic recovery. Furthermore, the work-life balance has become a very important issue when it comes to choose a place to work. This has been creating huge constraints in the hospitality industry in running and/or developing new businesses due to lack of qualified human resources. Considering the importance of this sector in the Portuguese economy, it is of paramount importance to better understand the origin of such constraints and how businesses can adapt to a new labour market reality. An exploratory study was conducted to understand how restaurant opening hours, as a top-level management decision, affects the work-life balance in the industry thus contributing to enrich the attractiveness of the jobs offered. To develop the study two groups of restaurants were studied. The first group is comprised of limited opening-hours restaurants, and the second group (as a control group), a non-limited opening hours restaurant. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with proprietors and/or top-level managers to ascertain how the decision on opening hours was weighed in the work-life balance concerns and what are the most important managerial implications, business profitability impacts, and staff retention indicators. Preliminary results seem to indicate that restaurant opening hours are one important top-level management decisions and the work-life balance has played a crucial role in the definition of the business model of the studied restaurants. By choosing limited opening hours, managers are able to schedule staff much easier and respect, as much as possible their work-life balance which then contributes to a more stable and motivated workforce. The results also show that this is only possible because restaurants manage to be profitable within the limited opening hours period. Further studies should be conducted to better understand how these new business model approaches could be used in larger-scale restaurants with non-limited opening hours.
- The impact of Covid-19 in restaurants – Take away and delivery, the consumer’s perspectivePublication . Azevedo, Daniel; Melo, AntónioTake-away and delivery where already being used by the restaurant business in Portugal prior to Covid-19 as a way to increase sales and profitability. The early days of the pandemic with an almost complete lockdown had a huge impact in the restaurant sector as all restaurants were suddenly forced to close. That lead to a vast majority of restaurants reinforcing their already existing take-away and delivery operations or starting to operate that way. In order to better understand the relationship between consumers and take-away and delivery services provided by restaurants, a research was conducted to assess the degree of use of these services. The research took place between the 9th and the 25th of April by means of an online survey resulting in 448 valid responses. The majority of the responders (69%) already used these services prior to Covid-19 between 1 and 3 times a week. On the other side, 28% said that they had never used take-away or delivery. During the pandemic, 53% claimed not to use take away and delivery services whilst only 45% said they were using it 1 to 3 times a week. When questioned about their future intents after the pandemic, 72% predicted they will use take-away 1 to 3 times a week. Within the consumers that use take-away and delivery, 22.5% spend less than 10€ per order, 54% from 10 to 20€ and 23.5% spend more than 20€. Preliminary results show that despite the fact these services were already being used prior to Covid-19, frequency of usage is on the rise, foreseeing significant growth for take-away and delivery in the near future. Data also seems to indicate that this phenomenon is not specific of big cities and urban population and could become an overall trend. Restaurants should develop/adapt their menus to cater to the specific needs of these services and invest in consolidating their presence in the take away and delivery markets as it can become one of the most important revenue sources.
- The impact of tourism in the restaurant business: a case study in the city of OportoPublication . Rocha, Ana; Azevedo, Daniel; Silva, SusanaThe evolution of the restaurant business has always been strongly associated with the evolution of the tourism sector. In fact, several authors have identified and described the relationship between these two sectors. Restaurants and gastronomy are a significant part of the local culture and can work as a major touristic attraction. At the same time, restaurants profit from the increase in tourists in a particular market. However, there is few information on how the tourism sector impacts the restaurant business. This study aims to shed some light on how restaurants are influenced by the growth of tourism and how they adapt themselves to this ”new” customers. For that, a quantitative study was conducted in the city of Oporto which has been considered for the past years on of the best destinations in Europe and in the world, and that recognition has led to a steady increase in tourism, making it an excellent case study. A sample of 69 restaurants located in the city answered an online questionnaire with questions about restaurant location and characteristics, business growth and response to the increase in tourists at three specific periods in time — 2012, 2015 and 2018. Statistical analyses were performed with IBM SPSS 25.0. The preliminary results showed that most (n=53, 78,1%) of the restaurants were small or medium enterprises, 82,4% were located nearby touristic enterprises, 89,7% were nearby public transport stop and nearby touristic monuments. Regarding the number of foreign clients, there is a significant increase between 2012 and 2015, and a slight increase for 2018. There is also an increase in average selling price of a meal for 2012 and 2018. Regarding seasonality, results showed a higher distribution of customers across the year. The results valued the changes made in the restaurants namely hiring new collaborators with foreign languages abilities. Regarding the differences between historical and non- historical city centre restaurants there were statistical differences in the number of tourists in 2015, the number of tourists and the selling price of a meal in 2018. The restaurants in historical city centre had more tourists and a higher price. Thus, we can conclude that the characteristics of the restaurants customers has changed overtime and there is a decrease of seasonality associated to this business. The increase in the average selling price of a meal suggest that there is room for restaurants to upgrade their value proposition. Therefore, it is important the business sector follow this evolution and the specific needs of the customers related to this changes.
- The Way of St. James: food consumption patterns of pilgrimsPublication . Monteiro, Rafael; Azevedo, Daniel; Silva, SusanaThe Way of St. James is in full growth in Portugal, and the pilgrimage route along the Portuguese North Coast has aroused the interest of several tourist agents. The city of Porto is the location chosen by most pilgrims to start this route. The aim of this study is to know the pilgrims' eating habits along the Way of St. James and its economic impact on the territory. A quantitative methodology was used and a questionnaire about the pilgrims' eating habits was applied regarding three different moments of the day - Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner, in three pilgrim hostels (”albergues") of the Way (Porto, Vila do Conde and Caminha) and in a F&B spot. The convenience sample consists of 225 individuals aged between 18 and 73, 70.2% being female. 36.9% of respondents are German and 86.22% are European. 50% of the respondents have a university degree and 61.8% are Christian. The study shows that pilgrims seek to enrich their gastronomic culture by consuming local products. Despite preferring carbohydrate-rich foods with high protein levels, they also worry about eating healthy and choosing vegetarian food. At the beginning and end of each stage, the pilgrims usually ask the Albergue's host for information about spots close to the accommodation, whenever they need to eat. During each stage, they are guided by a pilgrim guidebook, they ask local people and follow street advertising, rarely distancing themselves from the Way. The results show that, on average, pilgrims spend €4.53 on breakfast, €6.46 on lunch and €9.57 on dinner. The total average daily expenditure is estimated at €31.08, meals included. We can conclude that the average daily expenditure of the pilgrims is low, and that the amount spent on food represents about 2/3 of the total average expenditure, emphasising the importance of this topic. According to the sample collected, the pilgrims' food consumption has little impact on local economies. Considering the growing demand for this route, F&B businesses could take advantage of this study‘s findings to increasing their turnover.