key: cord-0064601-juznsfo7
authors: Tavares, Fernando; Condurú, Olavo; Santos, Eulália; Tavares, Vasco
title: Touristic preferences of hostel guests during COVID‐19 times: The case of Oporto
date: 2021-03-10
journal: nan
DOI: 10.1002/jsc.2401
sha: 40dd6cb58479e340d8eda2b27a98310095e2df5c
doc_id: 64601
cord_uid: juznsfo7

The hostel market urgently needs to reinvent itself and define strategies to increase its revenue, providing safety to its guests during the COVID‐19 pandemic. In the trip's planning, the results show that individuals attribute high levels of importance to cuisine, local wines and to meeting new people. The social networks of the different places to visit are the least utilized means to plan what to do during their stay in Oporto. Static street advertising and leaving the hostel to go outside are much more important to hostel customers. The most notable attractions are the Ribeira and the bridges over the river Douro.

in the city's oldest (historic) zone. These studies also show that, in a hostel, its design and atmosphere are essential aspects, and that hostel guests value the fact that this accommodation allows organizing trips independently and flexibly, besides allowing to have more informal activities and being a cheap accommodation with a kitchen available.

The current literature and official documentation about hostels in Portugal are still quite scarce, and it is very difficult to access data on this subject (Volante, 2011) . The present study aims to understand the most important aspects of the planning and staying as hostel guests in the city of Oporto and ascertain if there are differences in the diverse analyzed aspects between men and women.

This article is structured into five parts. After this introduction, a literature review of this topic of research is presented. The investigation methodology is presented in the third part, namely the questionnaire's treatment principles. The analysis and interpretation of the questionnaire's results are shown in the fourth part. Finally, the fifth part concludes based on the results and draws some implications and suggestions for future work.

In 1907, a professor named Richard Schirmann realized it would be useful in the German city of Altena to have accommodations, which welcomed young travelers to stay the night and therefore initiated the first hostel project in his school. During the night, the classrooms' tables and chairs were removed and were replaced by straw bags that served as beds. In the morning, everyone contributed to the cleaning and reorganization of that place, which was again utilized for teaching.

A decade later, the German association of youth accommodations was founded by Schirmann, originating a hostel movement that rapidly was internationalized between 1930 and 1950 (Rodriguez, 2008) .

As Gomes (2014) sees it, to be considered as a hostel, the lodging must provide short term stays and shared facilities (like a dorm) for individual travelers, although many hostels also provide private rooms.

The word "dorm" is the referent to a room where travelers book individual beds independently in a room with other beds and guests, instead of booking a whole room, as it is usual in a hotel or inn.

For Tavares and Fraiz Brea (2017) , the hostel concept is defined as a cosy and laid-back place, designed to take up with other people, cook some food, drink, sleep, and also to befriend other guests, paying less for good quality standards.

There are a few fundamental differences between hostels and hotels, although both offer accommodation and overnight stays. By definition, a hostel allows its guests to interact and socialize more with each other. It has common living areas (rooms, bathrooms, kitchen, others), besides the dorms mentioned above . Such an environment is more directed toward adventure, differentiating itself from traditional hotels, since hospitality and proximity are key aspects of the guests' experience (Tavares & Brea, 2018) . Veríssimo and Costa (2018) observe that, in 2018, the hostel industry was evaluated at US$ 5.2 billion in bed revenue, with a forecast to increase 7-8%

year-over-year. This growth is mostly owing to the "Millennial" travelers. The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO, 2016) predicted to have, in 2020, around 300 million trips from international youth travelers, almost 60% more than in 2010. The so-called "boom" of Millennials in hostels represents 70% of this market's total clients, 15% of Millennials have been in a hostel in the past 12 months and in 2015 their average spending was approximately €1,522 (WYSE, 2020).

Throughout the years, a tendency to diversify the hostel's clientele has been verified, which was once composed almost exclusively of young backpackers (Mikuli c, Kreši c, Miličevi c, Šeri c, & Curkovi c, 2016) .

This diversification has been increasing the range of age groups, which imposes hostel entrepreneurs to search even further to offer better services and add value to their businesses to stay competitive (Hecht & Martin, 2006 (Hecht and Martin, 2006; INE, 2019) .

The main factors pointed out to contribute to the choice of a hostel are the cost-benefit ratio and location (Firth & Hing, 1999; Hecht & Martin, 2006; Hostelworld Group, 2016; Martins et al., 2018; Nash, Thyne, & Davies, 2006; Veríssimo & Costa, 2018) . Regarding the preferences of the hostel guests, according to Tavares and Fraiz Brea (2020) , were grouped into eight factors: the hostel's general safety, the hostel's cleaning, its basic furniture, the guests help services, design and atmosphere, location near positive externalities, the conviviality and entertainment of guests, and the hostel's objective physical safety. The work of Hecht and Martin (2016) points out that women give more importance to the aspects of cleaning, the staff's attention and agreeableness, and safety.

Oporto is a coastal city located in the Northwest of Portugal. More precisely, it is located on the slopes of the Douro river next to its mouth, and it is the second-largest city of Portugal, besides being the one who named the country (PortugalLive, 2020). Pereira, Silva, and Seabra (2018) Oporto's historical center is classified, since 1996, as a UNESCO heritage site, and it is seen as a lively city, also known for investigation, innovation, entrepreneurship (Hostelworld Group, 2017) , cuisine, Port wine (Dias, 2011; Hostelworld Group, 2017) , kindness, hospitality, and low cost (Dias, 2011) .

The city seduces tourists not only by its traditional wines and cuisine but also by its beautiful landscapes. Such a variety of accumulated attractions, including history, authenticity, and cosmopolitan contemporanea, turn Oporto into a unique and well-succeeded destination (Coutinho, 2012) . There is a wide range of monuments, historical references, and cultural centers options to receive touristic tours from hostel guests in this city. Coutinho (2012) Regarding the Portuguese market and the city of Oporto, there are no registers of an official organization that accounts for statistics about hostels and their volume of customers and establishments (Brochado & Gameiro, 2013) .

Given the latent growth of the touristic activity in the Northern region over the last decades, the Oporto's market has adapted by having many accommodations with collective overnight stays, such as hostels. Volante (2011) reveals that in 2008 the Portuguese Association of Hostels was created to fill the existing legal gap when the first establishments of this type began to function in Portugal. There was a need for a legal programme to defend these entrepreneurs, given the recurrent fines imposed on establishments.

The factors on which the choices of a touristic destination are based are still objects of investigation. It is essential to understand the factors determining the touristic choice and their influence on touristic options' general motives (Song & Li, 2008) . It is also essential to understand the factors determining the touristic choice of hostel guests.

The majority of hostel guests travels alone, although they seek social connections and affirm that they travel to collect memories by experiencing the local culture and knowing other travelers (Hostelworld Group, 2020 , Veríssimo & Costa, 2018 . This way, they explore new cultures and befriend new people (Hecht & Martin, 2006) . According to their mood and preference, this type of guests defines the touristic points and attractions to visit, deciding individually, which are the staying periods in each location and the means of transport to use. Besides that, they wish to visit and know the place beyond what is common and popular and learn as much culture as possible in each place they visited (Loker-Murphy & Pearce, 1995) . Millennials prioritize longer trips when they invest their money, knowing the world as much as possible, preferring social interactions, and new friendships and experiences (Veríssimo & Costa, 2018) .

As such, individuals who usually spend the night in hostel beds are essentially looking for sleeping comfort and informal relaxation, creating the opportunity to interact with other guests (Leonardi et al., 2020) .

Another interesting aspect points out that the exchange of values between guests occurs because of cultural and touristic interests and the objective of having a good atmosphere in common areas, a trademark of hostels. Although it is between young people from different countries, cultures and socioeconomic conditions, cordial integration also occurs by sharing areas such as the kitchen, bathrooms, and bedrooms (Thomazi & Baptista, 2016) . Tavares and Brea (2018) indicate that women value stimulating activities with guests more than men.

According to Mikuli c et al. (2016), the main reasons hostel clients travel are looking for new experiences, knowing the culture and history of their destinations, the nightlife and entertainment, the destination's low cost and to attend festivals, concerts, theater plays and films. These authors analyze two scientific approaches to the concept of "destination's attractiveness": a cognitive and an effective approach. The cognitive approach is focused on the physical characteristics of the touristic attractions. On the other hand, the effective approach is focused on the tourist's mind and the own perception about the potential of the destination to fulfill the necessities. The term "effective" is used because this approach aims to analyze intangible characteristics of the location, being the destination's attractiveness seen as an imaginary construction, only existent in the minds of the tourists, whether potential or effective ones. Regardless of the adopted approach, studying the "destination's attractiveness" concept is nowadays accepted as one of the most determining factors of the sector's competitiveness. Online consumer reviews (OCRs) and the so-called electronic word of mouth (E-WOM) represent the primary source of information from which young backpackers choose their hostels (Martins et al., 2018) .

In this digital era, a lot of information about the cities and places to visit can be obtained online (Hostelworld, 2020; Mochileiros, 2020;

Portoalities, 2020; Hostelgreeks, 2020). These websites allow finding the profile of young tourists, the most critical aspects in their trips, the places of greater interest in diverse parts and cities of the world, namely, in Oporto. This town presents typical and picturesque aspects, such as the Port wine cellars, the francesinha (typical dish), the romantic gardens and an unpaired nightlife.

The quality of the information given to tourists is important, and attributes like leisure and entertainment may increase the perception of the destination's attractiveness (Mikuli c et al., 2016) . In 2015, it was registered that 71% of the independent travel-related reservations were made online, like 36% of the tour packages (Schuckert, Liu, & Law, 2015) . Five years later, it is possible to infer that percentage has only increased.

For Martins et al. (2018) , OCRs and E-WOM are related by their speed by always being updated and available, mirroring customer experience satisfaction. It is demonstrated that they grant priceless references to help potential customers, turning into the digital age's word of mouth.

Dias (2011) observes that the tourist/visitor of the city of Oporto generally has a degree. Cultural tourism is the main purpose of the visit, monuments, museums, historical places, and Port wine cellars.

The author still refers that, for 75% of the visitors, the stay is shorter than a week (45% for 1-2 days, and 30% for 4-6 days), and that the Internet is the biggest source of information for these tourists. Tavares and Brea (2018) have also checked that the duration of the stay in a hostel, in general, is inferior to a week (46.6% stay for one to two nights and 46.7% stay for three to seven nights), whereas only 6.7% of the individuals stay for more than seven nights.

Considering the investigation's objectives, the population under study are the hostel guests in the city of Oporto. In the data collection, the non-probability quota sampling method was used to balance women and men. This option of collecting the data revealed the adequate one considering the current COVID-19 pandemic. The sample is composed of 116 hostel guests in the city of Oporto.

The utilized data collection instrument in this investigation is a questionnaire survey composed of four parts. The first part characterizes the hostel guests' sociodemographic profile in the city of Oporto The last part evaluates the importance of posting photos on social media, the importance of being informed in hostels about indoor touristic places to visit during rainy days, and assessing the possibility of the respondents living or making exchanges in the city Oporto.

In total, 32 aspects related to the planning and the stay in the Oporto city were analyzed. To assess the degree of importance of the aspects related to the trip's planning (see items in Table 1 ), to the planning of what to do during the stay (see items in Table 2 ) and to the offer of touristic advertising (see items in Table 3 ), a 5-point Liker scale was used (1-not important at all, to 5-extremely important).

To evaluate the impact of the attractions in the city of Oporto (Table 4) To assess the reliability of the 24 items utilized to evaluate the degree of importance of different aspects related to the planning and the stay in the city of Oporto, the Cronbach's alpha was calculated, and a value of 0.868 was obtained, which according to Pestana and Gageiro (2014) is labeled as having good internal consistency.

The questionnaire, which was initially in Portuguese, was translated into different languages (English, Spanish, Italian, and French). These were applied during September, October, and November 2020 in The respondents were approached and informed about the study's objectives, to cooperate and to fill the questionnaire and respond autonomously. They were also informed that the given answers were anonymous and confidential.

The questionnaires were filled out individually. It should be noted that when respondents were filling out the questionnaire, they were given the freedom to respond according to the health safety measures in force during this period.

After collecting the data, all questionnaires were analyzed by building a database, using the IBM SPSS Statistics 26 software. Five questionnaires were removed, for not being filled out. To analyze the answers of the 116 hostel guests in the city of Oporto, descriptive statistics were utilized to characterize hostel guests' profile and understand, which are the most critical aspects in the planning and stay in the city of Oporto.

The statistical inference technique was also used to compare averages between groups; more precisely, the Student's t test for independent samples was used (Marôco, 2018) . To calculate the size of the effect of the differences between the groups' averages, Cohen's eta squared was used, which according to Pallant (2013) , are classified as follows: 0.01 (small effect), 0.06 (moderate effect), and 0.14 (large effect). (2011) and Tavares and Brea (2018) , individuals tend to stay for more than a

week (38.8%) at the hostel, which may be due to the COVID-19

pandemic.

Regarding the number of destinations that respondents have visited or intend to visit beyond the city of Oporto, the majority (56%, n = 65) chose zero to three destinations. The option of three to five destinations obtained 12.1%, whereas a percentage of 31.9% (n = 37) affirmed to have visited more than five destinations. The majority of the respondents consider the city of Oporto is the leading destination of this trip (75.9%, n = 88).

About the percentage of the trip's budget that respondents intend to spend or have already spent in the city of Oporto, it is seen that a big part of them claims to spend more than half of the budget in this city (44%, n = 51). There is also 22.4% (n = 26) who claim to spend 25% to 50% of the budget, 24.1% (n = 28) spend from 11% to 24%, and only 9.5% (n = 11) invested up to 10% of the budget in the city of Oporto. Therefore, it is verified that most of the respondents intend to spend more than 25% of their budget in Oporto, which is an excellent sign for local commerce. This characterization of the profile of hostel guests is in accordance with the one obtained from the tourist/visitor of Oporto in the study of Dias (2011) .

The words or ideas that come to mind to people of the different countries of origin of hostel guests when the city of Oporto is mentioned are wine, history, Port wine, Douro, food, surfing, and freedom.

The presence of the word "freedom" may portray the search of young travelers for a safe place, where they may circulate and meet other people during the pandemic and lockdown all over Europe and the world. It is also worth mentioning that "Erasmus," and other words related with Sun and sea tourism also characterize the city of Oporto. according to Pallant (2013) , presents a small effect size. It should be noted that women give greater levels of importance to items related to the planning of the trip to the city of Oporto (Table 1) . Oporto, it must be highlighted. However, statistically significant differences were not verified; women give more significant levels of importance (Table 2) .

Observing Table 3 allows analyzing the importance respondents give to places that offer touristic advertising during their stay in the city of Oporto (the different places are ordered in decreasing order of importance). The respondents give greater importance to static street advertising (M = 3.80, SD = 1.01) and to the hostel's exit to the street (M = 3.77, SD = 1.03).

Advertising during the hostel's check-in is not very important to the respondents (M = 3.35, SD = 1.02). Rejecting advertisements during the check-in may be because guests are often tired because of the trip.

In the study of the importance of places that offer touristic advertising in Oporto, there were no statistically significant differences between men and women (p > .05). However, in terms of the sample, men give more importance to advertisements when they leave the hostel to go to the street. In the remaining places of the touristic offer, women give more significant levels of importance (Table 3) . attractive. It should be highlighted that Ribeira, and the bridges over the river are relatively close, that is the Ribeira is the strip of land that is next to the riverbed. Also, note that the mean differences between these two differences are small effect size (Pallant, 2013) . In terms of the sample, women also consider the attractions of Port wine and the Clérigos Tower are more attractive, although men consider francesinha as attractive more than women (Table 4 ).

Regarding the importance that respondents recognize to posting photos or stories on social media obtaining a high number of likes and are praised by friends: 47.5% of the respondents consider it as highly important (27.6% "extremely important" and 18.1% "very important"), whereas 36.2% of the respondents do not seem to care about it (22.4% "not so important" and 13.8%" not important at all").

Most of the respondents consider that, on a rainy day, it would be very important to be informed by the hostels about indoor and covered places that they could visit (45.7% "extremely important,"

and 30.2% "very important"). This aspect is vital as, on rainy days, local commerce activities can be defined. It may be beneficial for tourists and increase local commerce revenues, which has been quite damaged during this pandemic.

Finally, about the possibility of living or making an exchange in Oporto, most of the respondents consider this possibility as very likely (50.0% "extremely likely" and 19.0% "very likely"). This tendency opens a space of opportunity for universities or degrees to offer that kind of experience, being the hostel market an important niche to seduce such a clientele.

This work intended to investigate the most important aspects of the planning and the stay of hostel guests in the city of Oporto and ascertain differences between men and women in various analyzed aspects.

As far as the profile of the 116 inquired guests in the city of Oporto is concerned, it was concluded that the age of the majority is less than 30 years old and that the main tourism markets are Planning what to do in the city of Oporto, searching social media profiles of restaurants/bars/stores/attractions, searching their friends' social media, and searching in tourism apps/websites are the most important guests' actions. Statistically significant differences were only verified on the item related to advertising inside the hostel, as men give a higher level of importance to them than women do.

In terms of places that offer touristic advertising during the trip to the city of Oporto, the respondents give more importance to static street advertising when they leave the hostel to go outside. Regarding these points, statistically significant differences between men and women were not found. However, men give a higher level of importance to advertising when they leave the hostel to go outside. Women give importance to the remaining places of touristic offer.

Generally speaking, all touristic attractions are striking for the respondents, being the Ribeira, the bridges over the Douro river, and

Port wine the guests' favorite attractions. Statistically significant differences were found in the two most striking attractions for guests:

the Ribeira, and the bridges over the Douro river, being women the ones to consider these areas are the most attractive ones.

Guests consider it essential to post photos on social media to be praised by friends and obtain many "likes." The city of Oporto may profit from its beautiful landscapes to attract new clientele. It would be sufficient to adopt a simple public policy that indicates visitors the best spots for photos, stories and videos, making the city even more attractive to foreigners and potential new tourists.

Most of the respondents consider that, on rainy days, it would be highly important to be informed in hostels about indoor places they could visit. This information could enable them to define activities that involve the local commerce in a way that it is beneficial both for tourists and for the local commerce, whose revenue has been heavily impacted during the COVID-19 pandemic.

About the possibility of living or making an exchange in Oporto, most of the respondents reckon this possibility is very likely, which opens a space for universities or degrees that offer that kind of experience to advertise themselves, being the hostel market an important niche to seduce such a clientele.

According to the literature review, it should be noted that the touristic market had, over the last years, a very steep growth until the moment when because of the COVID-19 pandemic several measures were imposed to protect society and avoid the health service rupture. In this context, the number of tourists began to decrease. Of course, the emotion of being in a place one only knows because of books or webpages will hardly translate itself into words, photos or videos, and no technology will be able to recreate that emotion/sensation. Social distancing has been a huge challenge for tourism and in particular for hostels. Fear has installed itself, and hostel managers were forced to advise residents and employees to limit the contacts between each other to maintain social distancing, close common areas, wear a mask, and promote a frequent hands hygiene.

This market urgently needs to reinvent itself and define strategies to increase its revenue, providing safety to its guests. Hostels must maintain hygiene and safety conditions imposed by authorities, to have a proven certification that the risk of COVID-19 transmission is reduced, still considering that sympathy and coziness are crucial elements to make people feel welcomed.

In terms of touristic activities and local commerce, promoting the cuisine and Port wine should attract investments. Social media should be maintained updated with the location and forthcoming activities and sales because respondents use social media.

Static street advertising and the hostel's exit to the street should remain updated to inform the tourists/guests and increase their stay duration. Implementing a set of touristic routes to visit is very important. However, to avoid big gatherings of people at this stage, different routes should be organized, which start and end at different places to ensure visitors' health.

The COVID-19 pandemic crisis has limited the sample's size, which was expected to be more significant in a different context. The data gathering process became complicated to operationalize due to the access to hostels and, consequently, personal contact with guests. In future work, it would be interesting to study how hostel clients plan their trips and how they live their touristic experience in other places and touristic destinations. The importance and impact of the different positive externalities on touristic locations' attractiveness should be further investigated.

Fernando Tavares 

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