Purpose: The propose of this study is to determine the influence of Intellectual Capital (IC) and its components’ impact on Portuguese tourism organizations’ business performance through Return on the assets (ROA). This work evaluate and compare the intellectual capital in its four dimensions: (i) capital employed; (ii) human capital; (iii) structural capital and (iv) relational capital. Design/methodology/approach: To approach the aim of the study the method Value Added Intellectual Coefficient (VAICTM) was applied and the practical data were collected from the Simplified Business Information (IES) through SABI (Iberian Balance Sheet Analysis System) database. The economic and financial information was collected from balance sheets and financial reports of 46.951 Portuguese companies in the hospitality and tourism sector during 2016. Multiple regression analysis was employed to identify the effect of IC components’ that significantly contribute to the company performance.Findings: The paper reveals that VAICTM, human capital efficiency coefficient (HCE), capital employed efficiency coefficient (CEE).and ROA are positively related among Portuguese’s hospitality and tourism sector. However, the structural capital efficiency coefficient (SCE) presents a negative association with profitability and the results of the relationship between the variable relational efficiency coefficient (RCE) and ROA do not present statistical significance.Practical implications: The application of the VAICTM model presented in this paper provides a basis for practical application for management.Originality/value: The paper represents a pioneering attempt to understand the relationship of intellectual capital and firm’s profitability on Portuguese hospitality and tourism sector’s, to provide solid recommendations for the importance of intellectual capital in the sustainable growth of organizations in this sector.

Contemporary society has an increasingly broad and holistic perspective on health and wellness. It is scientifically proven that thermalism perfectly combines these two aspects. It provides a better quality of life and a complete state of well-being, physically and psychologically. Several studies have been carried out over the years, reflecting a paradigm shift in the conception of thermalism establishments. For this reason, the sector's stakeholders need to be prepared and have the necessary knowledge to respond to the different needs, characteristics, and motivations of both usual and new thermal users to define better action strategies. In this context, the research's main objective is to present a literature review and content analysis on the thermalism topic, through the most recognised databases, exploring the offer, identifying its users’ profiles and pointing out some trends for the market. As a result of the analyses, the growing interest and relevance of thermalism in scientific production stand out, particularly in tourism, as a social science. There are several studies that present a direct link between thermalism and tourism activity. It is notorious that thermal activity has both a recreational and medicinal dimension, all over the world. Literature analysis has also revealed the power of thermal waters for the treatment of a wide range of diseases and health issues, related to different medical specialities. Although the more traditional thermalism is still very present, the most recent studies portray some gradual changes on the demand and supply side, with a constant adjustment of both. Particularly in the user profile, there is evidence of a rejuvenated, healthier and heterogeneous demand, with different motivations to frequent the thermal spas. On the supply side, it can be seen that these establishments are seeking to reinvent themselves in order to complement their basic offer related to medical dimension, also focusing on the leisure, to enrich the experience of their regular users and attract others. Regarding the expected trends, they are mainly related to 1) Increased demand for prevention, leisure and well-being dimension; 2) Changes in the user profile; and 3) High potential for tourism activity.

Low cost carriers and tourism destinations development. Case study of Oporto, Portugal

This study aimed to determine the effects of economic growth and tourism, as well as company-specific factors, on the business performance of the hospitality industry, through an empirical analysis with panel data, between 2011 and 2021, of 1299 hotels based in Portugal with the main economic activity classification 55 - Accommodation. The variables under study included financial performance indicators such as return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE), financial performance measured by a CP SCORE variable and characterization variables such as age, size, legal form and the region in which the hotels are based. The methodology used panel regression tests and the results suggest that macroeconomic factors may be partially responsible for a small part of the variation in firm performance. Economic growth has a positive influence on ROA and competitiveness and tourism growth on the profitability variables ROA and ROE. Age and size influence economic and financial performance and there are differences between firms' performance according to legal form and region.

The research aims to emphasise the significance of sustainable tourism and the topics it’s being associated with. It is also intended to analyse the shift in literature during the selected time. A bibliometric analysis was conducted on highly cited documents about the Topic “sustainable tourism” from 2017 to 2022, using the Web of Science database. The analysis involved examining the number of research papers, their respective journals, co-authorship, country of origin and keywords. The keywords “sustainable tourism”, “covid-19” and “tourism” were used more frequently in the 50 articles collected. The majority of the articles were published in 2020 and 2021, coinciding with the pandemic, which demonstrates the emerging focus on sustainability given by researchers in this period. By relying on a specific database and specifically selecting highly cited papers, the study was limited. However, preferring these papers aligns with the goal of this research. The literature review synthesises the themes and perspectives from different authors and the relevance given to sustainable tourism due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It identifies key trends and viewpoints in the field while recognising its limitations and provides visual information on the topic.

This chapter presents a qualitative study, resulting from a systematic literature review using a text analysis technique through the NVivo software, version 10.0. This technique involves grouping words that reveal semantic similarity to each other and results indicate that considerations around soft and hard skills in tourism have been different over time. In short, it might be said that it is hard skills that lead people to job interviews, but it is soft skills that allow them to be recruited for employment. Hence, it is the combination of the two skill types that enables people to have a job in the tourism industry, manage a career, and contribute to the differentiation of tourism companies in the tourism global marketplace that tends to be increasingly competitive.