Fonte: Journal of Tourism & Development; v. 2, n. 21/22 (2014); 123-137
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Resumo: TThe outbound tourism from the People’s Republic of China, although showing with a considerable delay comparing to the post 2nd World War tourist ‘boom’, has experienced an exponential growth since 1983, establishing itself as the largest outbound tourism market in the world in 2012, with more than 83 million Chinese citizens travelling internationally. Although most of the travelling occurs within the Southeast Asia region, long haul trips are increasingly a reality for the Chinese outbound market. In this context, Europe positions itself as a destination for this market, because of its multiculturalism, however ‘only’ 4% of the global Chinese market chooses European destinations to visit. Simultaneously, only a few European destinations stand out as inbound countries – Russia, United Kingdom, Germany and France. Portugal attracted, approximately, 52 thousand Chinese travelers, in 2012, but the historical connections with Asia and the recent economic partnerships between Portugal and China, may stimulate the growth of the Chinese market to Portugal. This paper intends to analyze the evolution of Chinese outbound tourism, focusing in Portugal as a destination country, as well as to identify potential strategies capable of promoting Portugal in order to attract Chinese tourists.
