Tourism Destination Competitiveness: The Spanish Mediterranean Case

Abstract

The authors analyse the concept of competitiveness and then apply this concept to tourist destinations. The objective is to measure tourism destination competitiveness in the regions of the Spanish Mediterranean coast to provide tourism policymakers with tools to improve destination competitiveness. Through a review of the literature, the authors identify the indicators that may explain competitiveness. They then select the variables and determine their quantitative effect on destination competitiveness in Spanish Mediterranean regions. The findings enable a better understanding of tourism destination competitiveness. Finally, the authors comment on the relationship between competitiveness and prosperity.

Regional tourism competitiveness using the PROMETHEE approach

“…As well as this, a next step would be to examine the choice of other types of indicators that make sense at the regional level and not at the national level (and are therefore not part of the Tourism and Travel Competitiveness Index). To this end, it is worth mentioning the work of Sánchez and López (2015) on Brasil (MTur), in which the competitiveness of destinations at a regional level is analysed and which is not based on the Tourism and Travel Competitiveness Index.…”

“…From the supply and demand perspective, the literature includes mixed proposals (Craigwell, 2007;Croes, 2011) as well as proposals concerning only supply or only demand. Proposals centred on supply focus on the product as a key aspect to improve competitiveness (Melián-González & García-Falcón, 2003;Sánchez & López, 2015;Zhang & Jensen, 2007), while authors who concentrate on the demand perspective (Bahar & Kozak, 2007;Caber, Albayrak, & Matzler, 2012) consider that marketing is a decisive factor in the measurement of tourism destination competitiveness.…”

“…In addition, the Tourism and Travel Competitiveness Index is designed to measure the competitiveness of countries, not of regions. Similarly, many fewer studies examine the regional level than address destination competitiveness at the national level (Garín-Muñoz & Moral, 2016;Sánchez & López, 2015;Zhang et al, 2011;Zhou et al, 2015). This is a striking omission, because regions often play a key role as tourist destinations and many have had competencies in the area of tourism management transferred to them (Garín-Muñoz & Moral, 2016).…”

“…This is a striking omission, because regions often play a key role as tourist destinations and many have had competencies in the area of tourism management transferred to them (Garín-Muñoz & Moral, 2016). The few papers which do focus on the tourism competitiveness of regional destinations draw on proposals at the national level (Sánchez & López, 2015, Zhang et al, 2011 and assume that such proposals are comprehensive and can be applied to other types of destinations. Nevertheless, some authors have used new "pillars" which take new aspects into consideration, as is the case with Garín-Muñoz and Moral (2016), who assessed "economic results".…”

Tourism destination competitiveness: an application model for the south of Portugal versus the Mediterranean region of Spain: COMPETITIVTOUR

“…The third and last group aggregates general models and theories that are not centered in specific attributes or destinations. Probably as a result of a demand for wide range application models, the most broadly used type is concentrated in the third group, with emphasis in the major works developed by Crouch and Ritchie (1999), Kim (2003), World Economic Forum (2007) and, recently, Sánchez and Lopéz (2015), whose factors are summarized in Figure 1. More recently there are a number of studies that focus on the causal relationship to the dependent variable, factor interaction and relative weights of the different indicators in the overall competitiveness index (Croes, 2011, Zhang et al, 2011and Huang & Peng, 2012.…”