The competitiveness of tourism destinations is a key issue because it enables destinations to know their position with regard to their competitors. The aim of this paper is threefold: (1) to address the measurement of the competitiveness of tourism destinations at the regional level, (2) to show the suitability of using multi-criteria techniques to measure competitiveness, and (3) to apply the PROMETHEE and GAIA methods within a competitiveness study of eight tourist destinations located in the Northern Region of Portugal. The Metropolitan Area of Porto is the first in the ranking, followed by Cávado and Douro. The results of such an analysis show the comparative strengths and weaknesses of destinations, and allow them to identify their true competitors as well as those other destinations that are most similar to them.

This study shows that emojis are a significant element in brand communications, which still requires attention from researchers. Specifically, it describes the use of emojis by the four companies with the largest audiences on Twitter in the Spanish beer industry. Through a correspondence analysis, we found that those emojis were not a mere occasional resource within a message but rather a differentiating element for brand positioning. Likewise, we analyzed the existing relationship between the way in which they were used and the engagement generated. In this regard, we concluded that communications using emojis aimed at customer service and care, as well as those used in positive contexts and for emphasis, were the ones related to higher user engagement. We discuss herein the practical implications of these findings for businesses.

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Purpose Family holiday decision-making (FHDM) is a process composed of several stages. This paper aims to describe two objectives: to identify at each stage the roles in couples, the main decision-maker in the case of family holidays; and to determine the most influential variables. Design/methodology/approach To identify the roles played by the partners, a frequency analysis has been conducted, which provides a graphic representation of the so-called feasibility triangles. The technique selected to identify the variables that explained the decision structure was binary logistic regression. In total, 375 useful dyads of questionnaires were received. Findings Holidays follow a joint decision-making process in the initiation phase and in the final decision, while the search for information is carried out equally by either partner. The woman’s work situation, the type of destination travelled to and the difference in education levels between them are the variables that best explain how couples decide on their family holidays. Practical implications A better understanding of the FHDM process will help tourism companies to improve their marketing campaigns. Originality/value The characteristics of the sample composed of 375 couples whose members completed a questionnaire separately have allowed not have to rely on one response per household, which adds reliability to the results. This sample is higher than the one of many reference publications on the subject. Furthermore, this paper revealed differences between male and female perception.

This article studies the roles within couples, the main decision makers in family vacations, for each of the subdecisions into which the purchase process can be divided. This implies not only identifying the role played by each member of the couple in each subdecision but also determining the variables behind whether the man, the woman, or both jointly, have the greatest influence in each case. To this end, the use of 375 sets of questionnaires completed by each partner separately provided greater validity and reliability than other studies that have depended on only one answer per couple. The results show that vacations tend to follow a joint decision-making process, except for when it comes to searching for information, which is done autonomously by either partner. Women’s work situation and differences in education level within the couple are the variables that best explain how couples make decisions when purchasing family vacations.