Visit motivation influenced by distribution channels: the case of Paiva walkways

The Paiva Walkways, in Portugal, opened in 2015, gave an important impulse to the tourism dynamic of Arouca municipality. This tourist attraction lacks scientific studies, in the context of tourism. Thus, it was developed a study about the tourist motivation of international visitors of this infrastructure, in the year 2018. The main goal of this research is to understand if the sources of information available (distribution channels) on the Paiva Walkways influence the motivation of the visit, concerning international demand. It was used a quantitative methodology through survey by questionnaire, sent via e-mail to 3639 contacts contained in the database relating to the reservations that were made online. The results of the hypothesis show the relation between the Push dimension and: official website of Paiva Walkways, websites with information about Paiva walkways, family and friends’ recommendation, Tourist office in Arouca, brochures about Paiva Walkways, guides (on paper), and blogs, forums or social networks. Also, a statistically significant positive relationship between the Pull dimension and official website of Paiva Walkways, websites with information about Paiva Walkways, family and friends’ recommendation, travel agency and/or tour operator, tourism office (outside of Arouca), tourism office in Arouca, brochures about Paiva Walkways, guides (on paper), blogs, forums or social networks, radio and television, tourism fair and previous experience. On average, the importance is higher for “Official website of Paiva walkways”, followed by “Websites with information about Paiva walkways”, items with a mean value much higher than the intermediate point of the measurement scale.