Business tourists in the City of São Paulo: a segmented demand study

Abstract

ln this article, are presented the partial results of the exploratory-descriptive thesis defended at the Escola de Comunicações e Artes da Universidade de São Paulo, which aim is to reveal and discuss the characteristics of the business tourist in the city of São Paulo. ln that case, it has been adopted, for methodological reasons, the segmentation of demand method, in order to make feasible the investigation of this public in big business fairs that took place in the state capital. To support the analysis of the business tourists segment, some considerations were made as for the concepts that discuss the issue. The characterisation of the surveyed public revealed that there are socio-demographic variables of the business tourist that are dose to the considerations made in other works on the theme. However, the evaluation of types of equipment and services required for business tourists revealed the existence of a significant demand for hotels of average comfort, contradicting authors who associate the business tourist to luxury products.