Abstract

The combination of business and leisure into one trip – bleisure – is becoming popular. This segment has received a strong boost, especially from Millennials. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the bleisure tourism phenomena and the potential for this business-leisure symbiosis in Porto. A mixed-method approach was adopted through a Delphi technique to explore tourism stakeholder’s perceptions concerning both the city’s opportunities and strategies that should be followed to boost the bleisure tourism sector. The assets identified as very important for the development of bleisure tourism in the city were unique gastronomy, good wines, the historical center and local people’s hospitality. Nevertheless, improve human resource qualification, increase flight connections, enhance local heritage and urban regeneration and fostering collaboration networks between local stakeholders are strategic actions that merit more attention. Many studies have been conducted from the perspective of business tourism activities and impacts; few have been conducted from the bleisure tourism perspective and none have been conducted from the perspective of bleisure tourism in the city of Porto. This work represents the first attempt to elicit experts’ opinions about the potential of Porto to develop the bleisure tourism segment. This study aims to contribute to better understanding how destinations can take advantage of this niche segment of the tourism market, which kind of touristic assets can be valued and which specific destination attributes should be considered.

摘要

将商务和休闲融为一体的旅行——商务休闲——正变得流行起来。这一细分市场得到了强劲的推动，尤其是来自千禧一代。本文的目的是分析波尔图的商务休闲旅游现象和商务休闲共生的潜力。通过德尔菲技术采用了一种混合方法来探索旅游利益相关者对城市机遇和应遵循的战略的看法，以促进商务休闲旅游部门的发展。独特的美食、优质的葡萄酒、历史中心和当地人民的热情好客被确定为对该市商务休闲旅游发展非常重要的资产。尽管如此，提高人力资源素质，增加航班连接，加强当地遗产和城市更新以及促进当地利益相关者之间的合作网络是值得更多关注的战略行动。许多研究是从商务旅游活动和影响的角度进行的；很少有从商务休闲旅游的角度进行的，也没有从波尔图市的商务休闲旅游的角度进行的。这项工作代表了首次尝试就波尔图发展商务休闲旅游领域的潜力征求专家意见。本研究旨在帮助更好地了解目的地如何利用旅游市场的这一细分市场，可以评估哪种旅游资产以及应考虑哪些特定的目的地属性。