REGIONAL AIRPORTS, TOURISM AND DEVELOPMENT: TWO PORTUGUESE CASE STUDIES

Margarida  Vaz; Jorge  Silva; Emília Baltazar; Tiago Marques

doi:10.26215/tourismos.v9i1.398

Margarida Vaz

Professor and researcher of NECE - Research Unit in Business Sciences , at University of Beira Interior , Department of Management and Economics, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Covilhã, Portugal.

Jorge Silva

professor and researcher of LAETA/UBI-AeroG, at University of Beira Interior, Department of Aerospace Sciences, Faculty of Engineering, Covilhã, Portugal.

Emília Baltazar

PhD student and researcher of LAETA/UBI-AeroG, at University of Beira Interior, Department of Aerospace Sciences, Faculty of Engineering, Covilhã, Portugal.

Tiago Marques

Transportation Research Center (NIT), at University of Beira Interior, Department of Aerospace Sciences

Keywords

Regional Airports, Tourism and Economic Development, Business Models, Funding and Strategic Partnership, Operational and Economic Sustainability

Abstract

Air transport underwent profound changes in recent decades. Some airport facilities were privatized although others remained under public control, all pursuing commercial purposes through specialization/diversification of its business models, which proved to be quite profitable for infrastructures above a certain traffic threshold. For smaller ones, public funding proved indispensable to their survival. Stockholders, including tourism organizations, saw increased potential for regions with investment realizations in regional airports. This paper presents the Portuguese case studies of Évora and Bragança, and illustrates different models of attracting investments to develop regional airports, thus attracting air services and facilitating economic development, tourism in particular.

Abstract 34 | PDF Downloads 27