Rodrigues, SusanaSantos, Eulália Maria MotaOliveira, Margarida2025-07-172025-07-172019-01Rodrigues, Susana & Santos, Eulália & Oliveira, Margarida. (2019). The Offer of Tourist Routes to Increase Tourist Stay in Hotels. 10.13140/RG.2.2.26098.56000.9781911218760http://hdl.handle.net/10400.8/13696Tourism has an important economic, social and cultural impact. There has been an increasing number of tourists and offer of touristic places and accommodation. According to the World Tourism Organization there were 1235.2 million of international tourists’ arrivals around the world in 2016, representing an increase of 3.9%. In Portugal in particular, where this study took place, the number of guests have increased 9.8% from 2015 to 2016. Within the tourism sector, hotels need to innovate their product/services offer, to remain competitive. This is particularly important in the context of a highly seasonal tourism, like the religious tourism in Fátima, Portugal. Driven by faith, tourists visit Fátima, mainly on the festivity days. Though, the rest of the year, there are few tourists. In order to respond to the religious tourism seasonality, hotels in Fátima, in an effort to enrich tourists’ experience and knowledge about the region and to lengthen tourists’ stay, might offer, as a complement to their core product-service, tourist routes, e.g. heritage, nature, living culture, and gastronomic experiences. The aim of the current research is to understand whether the offer of hotels’ tourist routes, as a complement to their main product-service, would lead to increase the stay of tourists at the hotel and therefore, the hotel turnover. Quantitative data were collected. A survey instrument was applied in 2016 to tourists accommodated at four and three star hotels, in Fátima, Portugal. Thirty valid questionnaires were collected (77% from foreign tourists and 23% from Portuguese tourists) and analysed through descriptive and inference statistics. The results showed that: a) hotels should offer tourist routes as a complement to their core product-service, mainly those of churches/sanctuaries, museums, monasteries and castles, nature, culture, heritage and gastronomy; b) there is a positive and statistically significant relationship between the hotels’ tourist routes offer and the increase length of tourists stay. The results contribute to the knowledge as well as provide important insights for hotel managers in seasonal religious accommodation, suggesting that the offer of tourist routes can increase hotels’ turnover.engTourist routesProduct-service differentiationTurnoverReligious tourismHotelsFátima-Portugalconference object10.13140/RG.2.2.26098.56000