REGIONAL TOURISM STRATEGIES DURING THE SARS-COV-2 OUTBREAK AND THEIR IMPACTS ON AZORES TOURISM BUSINESSES

In tourism activities, rural tourism has a critical function in reaching regional and territorial sustainability. Bearing in mind the actual sanitary crisis caused by the SARS-CoV-2 and its horizontal impacts, as is the case of the impacts on the tourism sector. This article aims to understand the perceptions of entrepreneurs of establishments related to tourism activities in the Azores Region, an ultra-peripheral territory of Portugal, regarding regional strategies for the rural tourism practice during and after the pandemic in the Azores Region, highlighting the role of the development of rural tourism for regional growth. Contextually, this empirical research is based on a survey, previously submitted to a pre-test, with several relevant questions, including some multiple answer questions, in order to gather further information about the perceptions of business managers of the touristic sector regarding regional strategies for the rural tourism practice during and after the actual pandemic crisis in the Azores Region. Thereby, the three main aspects in which the regional authorities of tourism in the Azores will have to bet with urgency in the short and medium terms are three types - i) Improving air accessibility in the Azores, attracting new scheduled airlines to operate to and from the Region; ii) Facilitate visits to all islands, improving the inter-island transport network; iii) Promote activities throughout the year, attracting specific segments of tourists to combat the seasonality.