A tendência red carpet e o potencial do mercado chinês no marketing de cidades

: o caso da cidade do Porto

Abstract

The aim of this dissertation is to evaluate the Oporto city’s potential to attract and meet the needs of the Chinese outbound turism market. At a time when we are witnessing an exponential growth in the number of Chinese tourists travelling around the world, many countries and organizations show signs that they are aware of this phenomenon and develop strategies to attract this market. There is currently a tendency to please and allocate resources and efforts in addressing the Chinese tourists, in what has been identified in 2011 by the company TrendWatching as the Red Carpet trend. In this study it is initially performed a literature review on the Red Carpet trend, the characterization of the Chinese outbound tourism market and also about city marketing. From the model of levels of city marketing developed by Kotler et al. (1999), we proceed then to analyze whether the marketing factors of Oporto are adequate to this market and also the behavior of the entities responsible for the planning of the city against the Chinese tourist market. The main conclusion from the study is the finding that marketing factors of Oporto are appropriate to the main motivations of the Chinese market, although there are some barriers that create difficulties for Chinese tourists such as the language issue, among others. There are no demonstrations of the Red Carpet trend in Oporto and it is not given, so far, much importance to this market by the public and private actors in the city. In order to take advantage of the growth of this very promising market, Oporto city must then, in our point of view, reduce barriers and obstacles for Chinese tourists and strengthen its image amongst this market. At the end of this paper is presented a proposal of action containing several strategies and recommended proceedings so that the city can attract more Chinese tourists and reduce the constraints which arise in the process of traveling.

Date of Award	7 Mar 2013
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Susana Silva (Supervisor)