Tourism Sector Companies Indebtedness: Comparative Analysis of Lodging and Restaurant

The tourism sector constitutes one of the main pillars of the Portuguese economy, with emphasis on the importance of the lodging and restaurant subsectors. Therefore, it is of paramount importance to analyze the capital structure, as well as the debt structure of the aforementioned tourism subsectors. The macroeconomic and business determinants of corporate debt have been a topic investigated and debated in the financial literature, however, it is still an unresolved issue. The objectives of this study are: to compare the financing and capital structure of accommodation and catering companies in Portugal, as well as to identify the macroeconomic and business variables that determine those structures. The analysis of the results allowed us to verify that the average values recorded, in all types of debt (short-term, long-term and total), are higher in the restaurant sector compared to the accommodation sector. Furthermore, it was also concluded that both macroeconomic and business variables have different impacts on the different types of debt in the two sectors of activity considered.