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Tourism is characterized as being a sector that stands out as one of the business activities with the greatest potential for worldwide expansion, and as an engine for economic growth. If at the national level, the appeal of tourism is significant, on the local level this sector presents itself as an essential tool in regional development, as a means to avoid regional desertification and stagnation, stimulating the potential of more undeveloped regions. In such a competitive sector as tourism, companies should develop synergies and achieve competitive advantage. In this context, public-private partnerships play an important role in regional development. The aim of this paper is to present a theoretical context that combines different concepts and elements to explain and understand the public-private partnership phenomenon in tourism. A conceptual model of the role of public-private partnerships will be proposed in order to contribute to successful regional development.

Tourism is characterized for being a sector that has stood apart, as one of the business activities of the greatest expansion potential worldwide, and as an economical growth engine, which national impact is significant. But, if on a national level the importance of tourism is significant, on a more regional level this sector presents itself as an essential tool in regional development, as a mean to avoid regional desertification and stagnation of regions, by thrusting the natural and historical-cultural potential of the more undeveloped regions. On a world evermore global and competitive, it is of the most importance that companies develop strategic management, so that they may keep up to date with their environmental complexity, with the market trends and competitiveness, to obtain competitive advantage. Since it is unanimous that clusters increase the competiveness of a regional industry, and, since tourism is a powerful regional development tool, it is relevant and crucial to discuss the role of clusters in tourism. Clusters have become one of the most popular concepts of local and regional development, of research and exercise, because one of the goals of a tourism cluster is to lead companies that in a general manner work alone, to cooperate in the construct of a successful tourism product, to a given region. The aim of this paper is to present a competitiveness conceptual model, for a tourism cluster, for regional development. The main model characteristic is to emphasize the interaction between the determinants, to achieve competitiveness. Each determinant also enclosures a set of agents that promote pressure over the other determinant elements, so that the interaction degree defines the regional competitive advantage. In this model, competitiveness is the determining factor to a cluster’s success.

Tourism is characterized for being a sector that has been highlighted as one of the activities with greatest potential for expansion on a global scale. For its growth potential and for being a product that can only be consumed in loco, tourism accepts the prominence role of being a strategy for local development. In this context the search for competitiveness is one of the key concerns of companies around the world. As clusters being a competent tool in companies’ performance, in regional development and in countries’ competitiveness, it is important to analyze its potential in tourism. This research aims to propose a conceptual model to analyze how a tourism cluster encourages its regional competitiveness.

Dissertação apresentada à Universidade da Beira Interior para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do grau de Mestre em Gestão.

A Região de Turismo da Serra da Estrela (RTSE) dotada de impares condições paisagísticas, de recursos naturais únicos, repleta de cultura e historia, tornou-se uma região de lazer e de recreio muito apetecida. Observando o papel estratégico crucial que a actividade hoteleira detém na região e verificada a escassez de estudos de acompanhamento do desenvolvimento da actividade, visa a presente investigação contribuir para conhecer a realidade dos estabelecimentos hoteleiros de interesse para o turismo da RTSE. Deste modo pretende-se analisar os tipos de estratégias que estão a ser adoptadas nesta região, por este tipo de empresas, e identificar a existência (ou não) de grupos de empresas que prosseguem estratégias similares – grupos estratégicos. Para alcançar tais objectivos desenvolveu-se um estudo empírico, tendo por base as informações obtidas das análises estatísticas dos questionários realizados aos directores dos estabelecimentos hoteleiros de interesse para o turismo da RTSE. A análise dos componentes principais e a análise de clusters foram utilizadas na identificação dos grupos estratégicos. Os resultados das análises efectuadas permitiram concluir que os estabelecimentos hoteleiros seguem estratégias combinadas, em vez de uma estratégia específica. Foi possível detectar ainda a existência de diferentes grupos estratégicos, no qual utilizam estratégias competitivas similares. Deste processo resultou também, que as empresas pertencentes ao sector hoteleiro à semelhança das empresas de outros sectores, consideram que a estratégia assume um papel determinante para o sucesso da sua actividade.

O objectivo deste estudo foi medir o grau de orientação para o mercado dos maiores grupos hoteleiros de Portugal. Após uma breve explanação sobre a orientação para o mercado e o segmento hoteleiro em Portugal apresentou-se um estudo empírico realizado junto dos maiores 20 grupos de hotéis de Portugal, utilizando como instrumento de colecta de dados, a tradicional escala Markor (Market orientation) adaptada ao sector hoteleiro. Constatou-se nas organizações investigadas uma boa capacidade de geração de informações de mercado e resposta ao mercado. Porém os resultados obtidos com o constructo da disseminação de informações de mercado ficaram abaixo das expetactivas. Portanto, o desafio actual para as principais redes de hotéis de Portugal é propiciar a melhoria da disseminação interna das informações que os profissionais de marketing recolhem junto ao mercado.

In view of the importance of the hotel segment for the tourism and for the economy of countries such as Portugal, the objective of this study was to measure the level of orientation for the market of the largest hotel groups of Portugal. This investigation initially emphasized the importance of the marketing for the organizations, mainly the orientation for the market. After a brief explanation on the hotel segment in Portugal, an empirical study was presented, of quantitative, exploratory and traversal character, performed with the largest groups of 20 hotels of Portugal, using as an instrument of collection data, the traditional Markor scale (market orientation) adapted to the hotel sector. After analyzing the data, it was found in the investigated organizations that a good capacity to generate market information and response to the market, which formed two of the three constructs of Markor scale. However the results obtained with the construct of the dissemination of market information were below the expectations. It was possible to conclude that marketing professionals of the large hotel groups in Portugal are well oriented to the market, something not shared by other investigated departments of the hotels. So the current challenge for the main networks of hotels in Portugal is to improve the internal dissemination of information that marketing professionals gathered at the market.