TOURISTIC PRODUCT “AZORES”: TOURIST ORIGIN COUNTRY INFLUENCE ON PERCEPTIVE DIFFERENCES

Abstract

This study focused on the Azores Islands, which has characteristics that are considered favorable to the development of tourism and interest in the touristic product, and aimed to assess tourists’ perceptions of certain costs (cost of living, accommodation cost, plane ticket cost, and transportation to/from the airport cost) and determine whether these perceptions differ among tourists residing in different countries.

Results show that most tourists, residents in Portugal or not, perceive the cost of living and the plane ticket cost as high and the accommodation cost and transportation to/from the airport cost as normal.

We concluded that the different models (cost of living model, accommodation cost model, plane ticket cost model and transportation to/from the airport cost model) differ according to residence. Among non-residents, to live/reside in certain countries, induces respondents to show perceptive differences of the examined costs.