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Abstract(s)
The 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.
Description
Keywords
Tourism Restaurant business Oporto
Citation
Publisher
Academic Publishing