ERBE 01 2 05
The Seasonality Structure of Demand in the Portuguese Hotel Industry before the COVID-19 Pandemic
BRUNO MELO MAIA a and SARA PARALTA b
a CICEE, UAL; b CICEE, UAL, ISCSP
To cite this article:
Melo Maia, B. & Paralta, S. 2022. The Seasonality Structure of Demand in the Portuguese Hotel Industry before the COVID-19 Pandemic. European Review of Business Economics I(2): 99-129.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.26619/ERBE-2021.01.5
Received: 27 September 2021. Accepted 10 January 2022. Published: 30 June 2022
Language: English
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to study the monthly seasonality structure of demand in the hotel industry in continental Portugal before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The tourism sector accounts for more than 10% of Portugal’s GDP, as well as being a key factor for regional development and employment. Understanding the seasonality structure of the hotel sector provides useful insight about business viability and aids operational decisions, namely concerning the post-pandemic recovery. Therefore, we analyze time-series data collected from Statistics Portugal, concerning net bed occupancy rates for continental Portugal, as well as according to region and hotel category, for the pre-pandemic period between 2014 and 2019. This allows us to identify the seasonal peaks according to region and compare the differences in demand for hotels according to hotel category. We also analyze the relationship between the seasonality coefficients and the average income per night (room rate).
Keywords
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