Can padel serve tourism

Abstract

Sports tourism is a growing sector in Europe, with more tourists looking for unique and engaging sporting experiences. Padel has grown in popularity throughout Europe in recent years, making it an appealing option for sports tourists and enthusiasts. This thesis investigates the factors that make a padel club appealing to tourists visiting European countries as well as non­padel players.In this study, 202 TripAdvisor reviews from padel players were extracted and analyzed using a software called Leximancer. These reviews came from thirty padel clubs in five different European countries: Portugal, France, Spain, England, and Italy. Leximancer processes these reviews by transforming data into semantic patterns.The study identifies several key themes that contribute to the attractiveness of a padel club for tourists through a literature review and qualitative research, including "padel," "friendly," "club," "playing," "team," "recommend," "lessons," and "helpful." The findings suggest that investing in high­quality facilities and coaches, creating a welcoming and supportive environment, cultivating a sense of community among visitors, and positive recommendations from previous visitors can all improve a padel club's overall attractiveness to sports tourists.This study contributes significantly to the theory of sports tourism by elucidating the variables that affect the attractiveness of padel clubs to tourists in Europe. The findings can assist padel club’smanagers and tourism organizations in developing strategies to improve the overall sports tourism experience and bring more tourists to European padel clubs.

Date of Award	30 Jun 2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Helena Rodrigues (Supervisor)