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Research Project
Centre for Tourism Research, Development and Innovation
Funder
Authors
Publications
Exploring the impact of climate change on lodging establishments: a systematic literature review
Publication . Mota, Luís; Leite, Eduardo; Ghasemi, Vahid
Purpose This study aimed to identify scientific research concentrating on climate change
impacts on accommodation services and examine the most relevant outputs related to man agement strategies due to exposure to climate change.
Methodology It used a systematic review of the literature of scientific articles published
in the Web of Science and SCOPUS. The search strings were validated by academics, who
suggested adding more keywords for studying the relationship between accommodation
settings and climate change. As a result, four search strings were established and identified
39 articles for qualitative analysis with MAXQDA.
Findings Some studies asserted that corporate social responsibility is important for mit igating climate change issues. hotels work together with local businesses, enforcing the
community’s adaptive capacity to climate change and supporting the need for education
and training programs to understand climate change risks better. Moreover, green human
resources management directly relates to the level of environmental awareness in local
communities. Using air conditioning for combating heat waves consumes high amounts of
energy. One option lies in energy-efficient buildings such as passive houses, using compact
designs for reducing the cost of operation. Currently, hotel operations rely more on being
more transparent regarding informing guests and influencing eco-friendly choices. On the
other hand, there is an investment in training employees regarding good practices for energy
use and management. Such action leads to accountable energy savings. Nevertheless, hotels
still struggling to adapt because of their elevated energy consumption for heating, hot water,
lightning, or cooling aggregates.
Standardized Reading of Sustainable Tourism Indicators for Ultraperipheral Regions
Publication . Leite, Eduardo; Mota, Luís; Lousada, Sérgio; Leite, Ana
Sustainable development raises various challenges in terms of UPR for putting public
policies into effect, and the concept, namely about the definition of metrics, is adapted to small parcels
of territory. The objective of the present study is to introduce an alphanumeric reading scale for the
tourism sustainability indicators in UPR, to be precise, Madeira and the Azores to allow a better
interpretation and understanding. A total of 25 indicators were compared in the last 5 years and with
the COVID-19 pandemic, although there are positive performances, a lack of data was observed for
some indicators, and some lack of information in the last 2 years or more. During the last 5 years, the
pillar of environmental sustainability has maintained its ideal form, but in comparison with the last
2 years, it has moved to critical status, which is in part a consequence of the lack of recorded data.
There are indicators that are not registered on the UPR and some data from Turismo de Portugal refer
only to the mainland zone. The major implication is raised in terms of the existing indicator systems,
which are not all provided periodically, influencing the interpretation of the indicators of Portuguese
UPR. Consequently, assertive, sustainable decisions are difficult to be taken based on non-existent or
insufficient data.
Hydraulic Planning in Insular Urban Territories: The Case of Madeira Island—São João Stream, Funchal, Portugal
Publication . Lousada, Sérgio; Alves, Raul; Fernandes, Mário; Gonçalves, Leonardo
his study’s primary goal was to conduct an analysis regarding the flood susceptibility
of the main watercourse of the São João (Funchal) drainage basin. In addition, if proven necessary,
we also aimed to suggest mitigation measures, such as sizing a detention basin and promoting
adjustments of the riverbed’s roughness coefficient. This study also resorted to geomorphological
data—obtained during the watershed characterization process—that were then utilized in the SIG
ArcGIS software, in order to estimate the expected peak flow rate, considering a return period of
100 years using the Gumbel distribution. Finally, the Manning–Strickler equation was utilized to
determine the river discharge point’s drainage capacity; the reason for that was to verify whether its
drainage capacity was sufficient to drain the entire volume of rainwater associated with an extreme
flood event. In summary, the results obtained by this study indicate that the drainage capacity of
the river discharge point of the São João watershed (Funchal) is insufficient when considering an
extreme flood event, for a return period of 100 years. Hence, it became necessary to explore the two
aforementioned mitigation measures: first, regarding the detention basin, its sizing was calculated
through both the Dutch method and the simplified triangular hydrograph method; second, aiming
to increase the drainage capacity of the river discharge point, it is suggested that the roughness
coefficient should also be modified.
The Role of Ports in Tourism: Porto Santo Harbour
Publication . Lousada, Sérgio; Castanho, Rui Alexandre
The island of Porto Santo belongs to the Madeira Archipelago and is often described as an
idyllic paradise for its warm waters and its iconic sandy beach, though it faces vulnerabilities such
as insularity; a small economy; geographic remoteness; and scarce population, area, and available
resources. Nevertheless, these disadvantages have a silver lining because small territories can act
as laboratories to test and develop models that can subsequently be implemented at a larger scale.
This work provides a case study of the role of ports in tourism development It presents an analysis
of air and maritime transport used by tourists to visit the Island of Porto Santo, Madeira Islands,
Portugal. The climate changes and strong winds during the year can reduce tourist demand for the
inter-island sea travel in the Madeira Archipelago. Porto Santo is a strategic transfer point for tourism,
and improving the shipping infrastructures will enable a faster and more diversified maritime trans portation system. To capitalise on these developments, Porto Santo needs to improve its reputation
as an exclusive beach destination. This will reduce tourism seasonality and improve sustainability.
Local identity, language and sustainable tourism: results of a survey of Madeira University tourism students about their communities
Publication . Nunes, Naidea Nunes
This study shows the potential of culture,
society, and language tourism for the sustainable deve lopment of the island of Madeira. The intention is to
ascertain the level of knowledge of students in the higher
professional technical course of tourist information and
marketing at Madeira University about their local identity
and the importance of cultural heritage for sustainable
tourism. The research question is about the role of com munities‘ tangible and intangible cultural heritage (ICH)
(including language or linguistic heritage) for the sus tainability of tourism in the region. The qualitative and
descriptive methodology used is based on data collected
through a questionnaire with open questions applied in
the classroom to 43 tourism students from different locali ties about their cultural heritage and identity. The results
of the sample show that religious festivities, Madeiran
regionalisms and traditional expressions were registered
in Funchal and outside. For the city of Funchal (the capital
of Madeira) there are more indications of tangible cultural
heritage. For the other municipalities, ICH predominates
with diverse local handicrafts and festivities of agricultu ral products. Thus, communities’ preservation of their ICH is fundamental for local identity and sustainability. Stu dents, together with Madeiran cultural associations and local people, have an important role to play in the authen ticity and sociocultural sustainability of regional tourism
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Contributors
Funders
Funding agency
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Funding programme
6817 - DCRRNI ID
Funding Award Number
UIDB/04470/2020