Editorial

José António C. Santos

Issue Nºof the journal marks an important milestonein its history which isthe starting point for the annual publication of different issues according to linguistic criteria based on our editorial strategies. Until 2010, the journal was published in three languages. From now onwards we will havean annual English issue and a Portuguese/Spanish issue. The decision to publish issues in English is due to various reasons: firstly, because of the importance of English as the universal language for the diffusion of research, particularly in the areas of Tourism and Management, since the most important journals in these areas are published in English. Secondly, due to the editorial strategy of internationalization of the journal, which has been successfully implemented in recent years. In fact, if we want the journal to be available to readers around the world and to be considered an option for publication by international researchers, it is necessary to make it available in the most suitable platforms and languages that best serve such dissemination. Finally, the first edition of this issue in English is also due to the growing number of submissions of good papers in that language.

Another interesting fact is that regular conferences both in Tourism and in Management will be jointly organized by the Tourism & Management Studies journal and the School of Management, Hospitality and Tourism of the University of the Algarve to which the journal belongs. The first of these series of conferences was the "Ist International Conference on Tourism & Management Studies - Algarve in 2011", which took place between 26-29 October 2011 in Olhão, Portugal. Its success exceeded all our expectations. In fact, both the 261 submissions from 34 countries (reduced to 186 presentations from 21 countries after the review process), and the number of registered participants (334, coming from 86 universities), led us to think that the possibility of publication in our journal is attractive for many researchers around the world. This volume includes some of the best papers submitted in English to that conference. These papers reflect the vast geographical spread of the origin of their authors: Portugal, Spain, Poland, Holland, Germany, South Africa and Bulgaria. Concerning papers from Portuguese authors it may not be surprising that the vast majority of them are from the Universities of Aveiro and the University of the Algarve, perhaps the main tourism research centers in Portugal.

Articles published in this issue cover a wide range of topics. There are papers exploring various aspects of marketing destinations, from the determining factors of a city’s tourism attractiveness to the tourism market segmentation using less explored factors such as the perceived impact of tourism on quality of life, or understanding tourist recommendations through destination image and the impact of online advertising in the tourism industry on consumers. Some topics are closer to management issues, such as new challenges facing airport management, and the modelling of tourism demand by producing long-term forecasts of a tourism sub-sector that has experienced a boom in recent years: the industry of spas and wellness. In a context marked by an increase in competitiveness in the tourism sector and the economic crisis, there are articles that explore new management approaches to solving some of the constraints faced both by companies and destinations. Such is the case of articles that investigate business cooperation between small and medium-sized tourism enterprises with tourism stakeholders, the development of partnerships between businesses and local communities, as well as those that attempt to understand the factors that determine community support for hosting events or changes promoted by the conference sector to face the consequences of economic crisis, or the exploration of soft skills as key competencies in hospitality management higher education.

Today, as in the past, tourism development is linked both to collective objectives such as how to achieve a better quality of life for the host community, and objectives of a more personal nature, for example having new, enriching and invigorating experiences. Both these topics are addressed by the articles that examine the determinants for tourism and poverty alleviation and the analysis of the meaning and nature of the tourist experience in the context of rural tourism.

We thank all authors for their excellent contributions.