Outdoor solutions for the seasonal concentration of tourism demand in northern portugal: an integrated approach based on the gini index

Abstract

Measures that address the seasonality, one of the identified overtourism direct causes, allow making a critical reflection on the application of control policies and monitoring regional measures crucial on a sector with such importance at the regional development analysis. The measures should stimulate or reduce tourism demand during low or peak seasons, respectively, generating a better distribution of tourism flows and eliminating potential overtourism situations. Therefore, this chapter focuses on the development of a Gini Index to analyse the distribution of the seasonality in northern Portugal and through it control current public measures in practice and suggest the implementation of different and more effective policy measures. For instance, the ones that make a clear bet on outdoor tourism activities. It will be used in the Gini Index, by the tourists’ market of origin measured by the overnight stays in hotel establishments. The results showed the high seasonal concentration of tourist flows.