Abstract
The growing practice of adventure tourism reflects a change in the behaviour of tourists, with motivations based on the nature and on the practice of more active and challenging activities. Although these activities may involve some risks and difficulties, their demand has been growing among individuals with disabilities. With this, the offer of accessible products to individuals with disabilities has been a growing concern between tourism organizations, seeking to focus on corporate social responsibility. However, this dimension is not always welcomed and valued by all organizations, justifying the low relevance attributed in part to the weak impact of the accessibility in its operating results. With the purpose of analysing if the activities and services offered are adequately adapted to the audience that makes up accessible tourism, an online survey was developed and sent to 451 adventure tourism companies from the central region of Portugal. It is concluded that, of the 73 adventure tourism companies that responded to the survey, about half have activities and/or services adapted to individuals with disabilities. However, the adaptation is not done with the objective of increasing sales, but rather as a matter of betting on corporate social responsibility.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Ansarah, M., & Netto, A. (2010). A segmentação dos mercados como objeto de estudo do Turismo. In VII Seminário da Associação Brasileira de Pesquisa e Pós-Graduação em Turismo. Barueri: Universidade Anhembi Morumbi.
Argandoña, A. (2010). Corporate social responsibility in the tourism industry. Some lessons from the Spanish experience. IESE Business School Working Paper 844. Available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1593592
Buckley, R. (2010). Adventure tourism management. Oxford: Elsevier.
Butler, R. (1990). Alternative tourism: Pious hope or Trojan horse? Journal of Travel Research, 28(3), 40–45.
Candiotto, L. (2009). Considerações sobre o conceito de turismo sustentável. Revista Formação, 16(1), 48–59.
Cunha, L. (1997). Economia e Política do Turismo. Alfragide: Editora de Mc Graw-Hill de Portugal Lda.
Devile, E. (2009). O desenvolvimento do Turismo Acessível: dos argumentos sociais aos argumentos de Mercado. Revista Turismo & Desenvolvimento, 11, 39–46.
Devile, E., Jesus, F., & Cruz, A., (2011). O Desenvolvimento do Turismo acessível na Lousã: perspetivas dos agentes locais do setor do turismo. In Proceedings, I—international conference on Tourism & Management Studies (pp. 529–539). Algarve, Portugal.
Devile, E., & Moura, A. (2014). Adventure tourism for people with disabilities in Portugal: Oportunities and cheallenges. In Sport tourism conference 2014—STC’14. Coimbra.
Hall, C., & Weiler, B. (1992). Special interest tourism. London: Belhaven.
Kastenholz, E., & Ladero, M. (2009). Turismo accesible como ejemplo de responsabilidad social en las empresas y destinos turísticos El Caso de Lousã. Rotur-Revista de Ocio y Turismo, 2, 175–194.
Lima, S., & Partidário, M. (2002). Novos turistas e a procura da sustentabilidade—um novo segmento de mercado turístico. Lisboa: GEP Ministério da Economia.
McWilliams, A., & Siegel, D. (2000). Corporate social responsibility and financial performance: Correlation or misspecification? Strategic Management Journal, 21(5), 603–609.
Mota, A., Ferreira, A., Wada, M., & Santos, E. (2014). Turismo de Aventura Acessível. PODIUM Sport, Leisure and Tourism Review, 3(1), 61–73.
Moura, A., & Kastenholz, E. (2010). Accessible tourism management enhancing quality of life of people with disabilities. In Proceedings of the international conference on Tourism—Heritage and Innovation 2010, ISCET. Oporto. June 2010.
Peixoto, N., & Neumann, P. (2009). Factores de Sucesso e Propostas de Acções para implementar o “Turismo para Todos”. Relevância Económico-social. Revista Turismo & Desenvolvimento, 11, 147–154.
Porto, P., Cardoso, E., & Silva, J. (2014). O Potencial do Ecoturismo e do Turismo de Aventura no Município de Santa Maria-RS e seu Entorno. Turismo em Análise, 25(2), 261–284.
Silva, F. (2014). Turismo de aventura e asa delta: a relevância das emoções na percepção de qualidade da experiência turística. Universidade Federal Fluminense: UFF Faculdade de Turismo de Hotelaria.
Silva, G., & Teles, R. (2014). Acessibilidade no Ecoturismo e Turismo de Aventura: atuação do poder público e privado. Revista Brasileira de Ecoturismo, 7(2), 269–289.
Sousa, B., & Simões, C. (2010). Comportamento e perfil do consumidor. Revista de Estudos Politécnicos, VIII(14), 137–146.
Swarbrooke, J., Beard, C., Leckie, S., & Pomfred, G. (2003). Turismo de aventura: conceitos e estudos de caso. Rio de Janeiro: Elsevier.
Tai, F., & Chuang, S. (2014). Corporate social responsibility. iBusiness, 6, 117–130.
Turismo de Portugal (n.d.). Available at: http://www.turismodeportugal.pt/
Yau, M., McKercher, B., & Packer, T. (2004). Travelling with a disability—more than an access issue. Annals of Tourism Research, 31(4), 946–960.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Academy of Marketing Science
About this paper
Cite this paper
Lopes, R., Barroco, C., Antunes, J. (2018). Social Responsibility in Adventure Tourism: Analysis of Companies in the Central Region of Portugal. In: Krey, N., Rossi, P. (eds) Boundary Blurred: A Seamless Customer Experience in Virtual and Real Spaces. AMSAC 2018. Developments in Marketing Science: Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99181-8_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99181-8_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-99180-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-99181-8
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)