Influences and motivations of the North Portugal’s tourist regarding local accommodation

Nowadays, Local Accommodation is one of the main types of accommodations, not only seen in Portugal, but also worldwide. The huge growth of this subject and the strong commitment to new concepts has fostered new trends and needs in the consumer. The present study aims to identify the national tourist perception, living in the North of Portugal, in relation to local accommodation, characterizing the main influence and motivation factors in the choice of this type of accommodation in Portugal and abroad. Taking this into consideration, after a literature review, an inquiry was carried out through an online questionnaire, composed mostly of closed questions and evaluation scales, to all Portuguese living in the north of Portugal, who had travelled at least once over the past 5 years. A random sample of 239 participants was collected, between May and July 2019. The collected data was treated through the SPSS software. An exploratory descriptive analysis, an inferential analysis and a factor analysis were then conducted using the information gathered. The study seems to point out that there is a significant relationship between the national tourist’s adhesions to touristic accommodation in Portugal with the national adhesion to touristic accommodation abroad. The adhesion to local accommodation in Portugal is not related to the reasons for the trip/travel and the adhesion to local accommodation abroad, is mostly motivated by leisure. In what concerns the perception of the national tourist about touristic accommodation the location (Portugal/abroad) is not relevant.