This paper examines the determinants of the length of stay of tourists in the Azores. It is found that socio-demographic profiles, such as nationality and Azorean ascendancy, and trip attributes, such as repeat visitation rates and type of flight, are important determinants. In addition, destination image and attitudes regarding environmental initiatives, constructed from a factor analysis exercise, also influence the length of stay. In particular, the results suggest that marketing strategies which promote the Azores for its nature, landscape, remoteness and weather may increase length of stay, whereas cultural heritage has the opposite effect.
AlegreJ.PouL. (2006), ‘The length of stay in the demand for tourism’, Tourism Management, Vol 27, No 6, pp 1343–1355.
2.
BargemanB.PoelV. (2006), ‘The role of routines in the decision making process of Dutch vacationers’, Tourism Management, Vol 27, No 4, pp 707–720.
3.
BeerliA.MartínJ. (2005), ‘Tourists’ characteristics and the perceived image of tourist destinations: A quantitative analysis – a case study of Lanzarote, Spain’, Tourism Management, Vol 25, No 5, pp 623–636.
4.
CastroC.ArmarioE.RuiD. (2007), ‘The influence of market heterogeneity on the relationship between a destination's image and tourist's future behavior’, Tourism Management, Vol 28, No 1, pp 175–187.
5.
ChenC.TsaiD. (2007), ‘How destination image and evaluative factors affect behavioral intentions?’, Tourism Management, Vol 28, No 4, pp 1115–1122.
6.
CrouchG. (1994), ‘A meta-analysis of tourism demand’, Annals of Tourism Research, Vol 22, No 1, pp 103–118.
7.
CrouchG.LouviéreI. (2000), ‘A review of choice modelling research in tourism, hospitality, and leisure’, Tourism Analysis, Vol 5, No 2–4, pp 97–104.
8.
DaviesB.ManganJ. (1992), ‘Family expenditure on hotels and holidays’, Annals of Tourism Research, Vol 19, No 4, pp 691–699.
9.
DecropA.SneldersD. (2004), ‘Planning the summer vacation: An adaptable and opportunistic process’, Annals of Tourism Research, Vol 31, No 4, pp 1008–1030.
10.
FleischerA.PizamA. (2002), ‘Tourism constraints among Israeli seniors’, Annals of Tourism Research, Vol 29, pp 106–123.
11.
GokovaliU.BaharO.KozakM. (2007), ‘Determinants of length of stay: A practical use of survival analysis’, Tourism Management, Vol 28, No 3, pp 736–746.
12.
GreeneW. (2000), Econometric Analysis, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ.
13.
HellersteinD. (1991), ‘Using count data models in travel cost analysis with aggregate data’, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Vol 73, No 3, pp 860–866.
14.
HellströmJ. (2006), ‘A bivariate count data model for household tourism demand’, Journal of Applied Econometrics, Vol 21, No 2, pp 213–226.
15.
HillM.HillA. (2002), Research with Surveys, Sílabo, Lisbon.
16.
HosmerD.LemeshowS. (1999), Applied Survival Analysis, Wiley, New York.
17.
HuiT.WanT. (2003), ‘Singapore's image as a tourist destination’, International Journal of Tourism Research, Vol 5, No 4, pp 305–313.
18.
KieferN. (1988), ‘Economic duration and hazard functions’, Journal of Economic Literature, Vol 26, pp 646–667.
19.
KozakM. (2001), ‘Repeaters' behavior at two distinct destinations’, Annals of Tourism Research, Vol 28, No 3, pp 785–808.
20.
LancasterT. (1990), The Econometric Analysis of Transition Data, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
21.
LegoherelP. (1998), ‘Toward a market segmentation of the tourism trade: Expenditure levels and consumer behavior instability’, Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing, Vol 37, No 1, pp 19–39.
22.
LehtoX.O'LearyJ.MorrisonA. (2004), ‘The effect of prior experience on vacation behaviour’, Annals of Tourism Research, Vol 31, No 4, pp 801–818.
23.
LimC. (1997), ‘An econometric classification and review of international tourism demand models’, Tourism Economics, Vol 3, No 1, pp 69–81.
24.
LinD.WeiL. (1997), ‘The robust inference for the Cox proportional hazards model’, Journal of the American Statistical Association, Vol 84, No 408, pp 1074–1078.
25.
MokC.IversonT. (2000), ‘Expenditure-based segmentation: Taiwanese tourists to Guam’, Tourism Management, Vol 21, No 3, pp 299–305.
26.
OppermannM. (1995), ‘Travel life cycle’, Annals of Tourism Research, Vol 22, No 3, pp 535–552.
27.
OppermannM. (1997), ‘First-time and repeat visitors to New Zealand’, Tourism Management, Vol 18, No 3, pp 177–181.
28.
PalmerA.SeséA.MontañoJ. (2005), ‘Tourism and statistics: Bibliometric study 1998– 2002’, Annals of Tourism Research, Vol 32, No 1, pp 167–178.
29.
Palmer-TousT.Riera-FontA.Rosselló-NadalJ. (2007), ‘Taxing tourism: The case of rental cars in Mallorca’, Tourism Management, Vol 28, No 1, 271–279.
30.
PikeS. (2002), ‘Destination image analysis – a review of 142 papers from 1973 to 2000’, Tourism Management, Vol 23, No 5, pp 541–549.
31.
SaarinenJ. (2006), ‘Traditions of sustainability in tourism studies’, Annals of Tourism Research, Vol 33, No 4, pp 1121–1140.
32.
SeatonA.PalmerC. (1997), ‘Understanding VFR tourism behavior: The first five years of the United Kingdom tourism survey’, Tourism Management, Vol 18, No 6, pp 345–355.
33.
SmithV. (1988), ‘Selection and recreation demand’, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Vol 70, No 1, 29–36.
34.
SongH.WittS. (2000), Tourism Demand Modelling and Forecasting: Modern Econometric Approaches, Pergamon, Oxford.
35.
SungH.MorrisonA.HongG.O'LearyJ. (2001), ‘The effects of household and trip characteristics on trip types: A consumer behavioural approach for segmenting the US domestic leisure travel market’, Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research, Vol 25, No 1, pp 46–68.
36.
UNCED (1992), Agenda 21: A Guide to the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, UN Publications Service, Geneva.
37.
WittS.WittC. (1995), ‘Forecasting tourism demand: A review of empirical research’, International Journal of Forecasting, Vol 11, No 3, pp 447–475.
