Cultural management as a tourism competitiveness factor. A principal component analysis (PCA) for Colombia

Abstract

This article aims to present a comparative analysis of a range of variables from the Regional Tourism Competitiveness Index of Colombia (ICTRC, for its acronym in Spanish), developed by the Centre for Tourism Thinking (CPTUR), inherent to the dimension of Cultural Management in 22 Colombian territories. Principal component analysis was applied to measure the correlation between eight ICTRC variables, which account for the level of cultural management in Colombia. The analysis revealed that the cultural management factors from the ICTRC can be grouped in two wide groups: preexisting factors and factors derived from new strategies. The 22 territories were classified in three clusters: the first one is high performing in both factor types, the second one is high performing in preexisting factors but low performing in factors derived from new strategies, and the third one is high performing in factors derived from new strategies but low performing in preexisting factors. It is concluded that tourism competitiveness in the cultural realm is dynamic. Therefore, the many actors in the tourism sector value chain will have to formulate strategic, tactic and operational actions in the wide range of companies' and destinations' functional areas in order to increase competitiveness in cultural management.