Impact of Mediterranean Climatic factors in Algarve on loyalty over International Tourist (Case study of Algarve, Portugal)

Abstract

Weather and climate affect all living organisms that inhabit our planet. At the same time, weather and climate influence a person as a biological being (on his or her well-being), as well as on most branches of his or her economic activity. The tourism sector (and especially some types of tourism) is among the most dependent on the weather and climate among human activities. The customer loyalty plays a vital role within the tourism and hospitality industry. It is very important to make sure the customers are satisfied and remain as loyal as possible, because the loyal customers work as a good promotion tool as they spread the WoM (word of mouth) within their friends, family, relatives and others. On the contrary, not being satisfied to the service or product may translate into a negative feedback, which can lead to a bad image for the business of a certain destination. The main purpose of this study is to identify the variables that are significant to explain loyalty to Algarve, as a touristic destination in terms of the climatic factors. Here, in this study, one tries to study the relation between meteorological factors and level of loyalty of tourists. The definition of climate requires a long-term duration (almost a year). Given the fact that most of the visiting tourist are not staying in any destination that long, in this study, the chosen sample group were international tourist to Algarve, Portugal. In relation to process of data gathering for this study, a number of 70 international tourist aged between 30-40 years old were interviewed and asked several questions relating to the Mediterranean climate and its impacts on their loyalty over a particular destination (In this case, Algarve). According to the research, it is found that the key factors that prove the loyalty of international tourists to the Algarve are comfortable temperature, sunny days and humidity. Keywords: climate, humidity, loyalty, temperature, international tourist, sunny days.