Building composite indicators in tourism studies: Measurements and applications in tourism destination competitiveness

Composite indicators are useful tools to synthesize and monitor multidimensional phenomena. The aim of this paper is twofold: to offer the methodological foundations to build composite indicators in tourism and to evaluate a set of currently available composite indicators. Tourism destination competitiveness indicators constitute the object of this contribution. Their definitions, concepts and measures are analyzed and their evaluation is performed through the application of an original protocol. The results highlight that several methodological issues still surround the measurement of destinations competitiveness indicators. This paper provides tourism scholars and practitioners with a set of statistical guidelines to build composite indicators and with an operative scheme to assess indicators' effectiveness in empirical evaluations.     

How does culture influence a Country's travel and tourism competitiveness? A longitudinal frontier study on 39 countries

The greater competitiveness of a firm improves the chances of its success. Likewise, countries are constantly attempting to improve their travel and tourism competitiveness to attract global tourists. In this study, we present a theoretical framework linking the culture of a country and its travel and tourism competitiveness. We adopted the theoretical foundation of global leadership and organizational behavior effectiveness (GLOBE) cultural values and practices to examine the panel effects of culture on competitiveness. We conducted a longitudinal study by using secondary data of 39 countries from 2011 to 2021. Results show that the culture of a country influence its travel and tourism competitiveness. Furthermore, we provide empirical evidence by performing longitudinal frontier analysis to determine which GLOBE model, that is, cultural practices or cultural values, is appropriate for future studies. Findings of this longitudinal study contribute to the novel understanding of competitiveness and culture.     

Exploring the relationship between government and destination competitiveness: The TALC model perspective

Competitiveness is evident in the marketplace as tourism has become a major tool for economic grow and job creation. Destinations must learn how to think more like businesses and develop new products, markets, and customers. Governments also play vital roles in tourism development, ranging from minimal to high level of involvement. Due to tourism's dynamic nature, Butler's (1980) tourism area lifecycle (TALC) framework helps explain the level of government involvement in tourism development. This article develops a conceptual model adding government involvement and destination competitiveness to TALC. Secondary data demonstrate the model and the results extend TALC's conceptualization by adding national competitiveness and government involvement to explain destination development.     

Analysis of travel and tourism competitiveness index in middle-east countries

The purpose of this research is to analyze tourism competitiveness in middle-east countries by using travel and tourism competitiveness index published in the report of the world economic forum. The used model is performed to analyze Promethee model and comparative analysis on the basis of data in 2015 and 2017. The analysis results showed that although Egypt, Iran, Kuwait, Lebanon and yamen improved their situation in comparison to 2015, they couldn’t improve their own competition power in comparison to other middle-east countries, and they were located in the group of countries with lower tourism competitiveness.     

Measuring price elasticities of demand for outbound tourism using competitiveness indices

The real exchange rate (REX) has long been used as the proxy for prices in tourism demand models. However it has limitations, particularly when it comes to models of outbound tourism. As an alternative, a price competitiveness index (PCI) is developed and used as a proxy for prices in a model of outbound tourism from Australia. Results obtained show that while REX is statistically insignificant and yields a price elasticity of −0.002, PCI is significant and generates a price elasticity of −1.07. The results obtained show that PCI outperforms REX as the preferred price variable in modelling outbound demand on both theoretic and empirical grounds. Furthermore, this index can be used to monitor the inter-temporal competitiveness of a destination.     

Fashioning a destination tourism future: The case of Slovenia

Achieving competitive advantage for any destination in times of rapid global change requires tourism stakeholders to have a clear understanding of the direction of change and its implications for business or destination management. The challenges are particularly acute for emerging destinations such as Slovenia. The paper discusses tools for measuring destination performance with particular focus on Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA). Using IPA the paper develops a priority ordering for Slovenian tourism stakeholders to debate, modify and to adopt actions that can help them prepare for the challenges arising from global trends. The survey instrument used for this study asks respondents to highlight both the important areas that should be addressed by tourism stakeholders in Slovenia and also the performance of Slovenia in respect of the success or otherwise of the strategies that are currently being pursued to enhance destination competitiveness. The findings reveal that there are a number of areas in which the Slovene tourism industry considers itself to be underperforming in the implementation of strategies to eliminate drift. The paper explores some of the implications of the findings for strategic action and implementation, making some concluding comments on destination development strategy while highlighting areas for further research.     

Measuring tourism destinations using mobile tracking data

We develop a methodology for measuring visitor flows to destinations using space-time tracking data. Based on a review of the literature on this topic we propose that a tourism destination has five dimensions – spatial, temporal, compositional, social and dynamic – that can be measured using space-time tracking data. We analyse three of these dimensions, namely the spatial, temporal and compositional, using the mobile positioning data of foreign visitors in Estonia from 2011 to 2013. Results show that smaller destination areas can be differentiated inside the whole country by the geographical, temporal and compositional parameters of the visits. These findings demonstrate applications of “BIG” data in destination management. A monitoring tool based on this methodology and data is currently being used by the Estonian Tourist Board.     

Transforming competitiveness into economic benefits: Does tourism stimulate economic growth in more competitive destinations?

This research note investigates the impact of a destination's competitiveness upon tourism's contribution to economic growth using a cross-section with 131 countries. Destination competitiveness is measured with the World Economic Forum's Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index, while tourism's contribution to economic growth is measured with the growth decomposition methodology. Results reveal that destination competitiveness has no statistically significant impact on tourism's contribution to economic growth. Tourism policy implications and directions for future research are also discussed.     

Gay tourism in a sun and beach destination

Gay tourism is seen as an attractive business opportunity for many destinations. However, there is a lack of research at identifying the resources necessary for success in this type of tourism. This work is aimed at filling this gap by using the premises of the resource based view and transfers them to the analysis of territories to identify the valuable resources that are required for a sun and beach destination to attract gay tourists. To this end, this study has focused on a gay tourism sub niche, tourists lodged in gay-exclusive resorts in Gran Canaria. In order to confirm the validity of this approach, the relationship between the satisfaction of gay tourists and the condition of the valuable resources was studied by means of a robust statistical new method, namely Bayesian model averaging. That method permits the inclusion of uncertainty in the theoretical models that determine destination competitiveness, thus reducing many of the problems that arise in the application of the more conventional statistical methods in this type of analysis.     

Tourism destination competitiveness: a quantitative approach

Recently, researchers have suggested an approach to tourism destination competitiveness that goes beyond conventional destination attributes to include, in addition, generic business factors of competitiveness. Despite its apparent promise, there appears to have been little applied research building on this combined approach. This paper is designed to address this gap. Factors pertaining to the competitiveness of both the destination's attractions and its tourism industry were used to construct an instrument that was used to survey tourism practitioners in Hong Kong. Respondents were asked to rate the factors for both importance and relative competitiveness, in a method consistent with importance performance analysis (IPA). The results were analysed and discussed by reference to the IPA Grid. The paper concludes that the study has developed a promising research methodology that offers a quantitative, theoretically informed empirical analysis that will be able to provide a basis for managerial and policy decisions in the tourism industry.     

Destination Marketing Organizations and destination marketing: A narrative analysis of the literature

This article presents the first narrative analysis of the areas of research that have developed within the destination marketing field since its commencement in 1973. Given the broad extent of the field, and the absence of any previous reviews in four decades, a key challenge is in providing a focus for such a disparate body of knowledge. The review is structured around one principal question: ‘To what extent is the Destination Marketing Organisation (DMO) responsible for the competitiveness of the destination?’. In pursuit of this underlying question, we address a number of themes including nomenclature and the DMO, the evolution of the destination marketing literature, competitiveness as the DMO reason d'être, and DMO effectiveness including issues of branding and positioning, and future research themes in the field.     

The absorptive capacity of tourism organisations

Absorptive capacity, one of the most prominent constructs in innovation research over recent decades, has advanced theoretically without consideration for the peculiarities of tourism and tourism enterprises. At its core is the notion that an ability to acquire, assimilate, transform and exploit external knowledge generates competitive advantage. Following a review of the literature and a study of absorptive capacity in the international meetings industry, a new theoretical model is proposed. The paper also provides the means by which policy-makers might, for the first time, assess levels of absorptive capacity in destinations.     

Destination competitiveness and tourism development in Russia: Issues and challenges

With new border policies and the development of travel infrastructure, international tourism to Russia experienced double-digit growth in the past few years. Yet, few authors have reported on the challenges the country faces towards sustainable tourism development and competitiveness. This study discusses issues that have affected and that will continue to affect tourism in Russia. The tenets of destination competitiveness and sustainable development are used to guide a critical discussion of tourism in Russia. The study results from a three-year project that brought together European and Russian partners. Despite great potential, tourism development in Russia remains hindered by numerous issues such as destination image, infrastructure development, workforce training and education, quality management, and sustainable management. Beyond contributing to the tourism academic literature, this paper also aims at contributing to private and public policy stakeholders who prepare the future of Russia's tourism with Russian universities.     

Knowledge transfer processes in the authenticity of the intangible cultural heritage in tourism destination competitiveness

ABSTRACT

As tourism based on intangible cultural heritage usually encompasses a knowledge transfer process, the authenticity of the heritage (or its perception) can be affected by knowledge transfer. These knowledge transfers occur to present the heritage to the tourists (courses, tour guiding, etc.), but also in the destination itself when the heritage knowledge is codified in museums, tour guides are trained, or the heritage is transferred to newer generations. These situations present potential challenges where authenticity is distorted or even lost, and it affects the competitiveness of the destination. The work attempts to analyse those knowledge transfers and their challenges regarding authenticity to sustain the competitiveness of the destination.     

Role of destination competitiveness and national corruption in hotel performance: A study of developing economies of Central America

ABSTRACT

The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between destination competitiveness (DC), national corruption and hotel performance (HP). A panel data analysis was applied to the Central American region. The results reveal that corruption has an impact on DC and HP. Such findings are important for the region as many of the countries are battling high levels of corruption while developing tourism industry. In addition, DC was found to have a unidirectional impact on HP. These findings provide a number of theoretical and managerial implications, reinforcing the role of a “shadow” economy and the importance of tourism.     

Aggravated fragmentation: A case study of SME behaviour in two emerging heritage tourism regions

This paper investigates the behaviour of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) within the heritage tourism supply chain (HTSC), in two emerging heritage regions. SMEs are conceptualised as implementers, working within the constraints of government level tourism structures and the heritage tourism supply chain. The research employs a case study approach, focusing on two emerging regions in Northern Ireland. In-depth interviews were carried out with small business owners and community associations operating within the regions. The research identifies SME dissatisfaction with the supply chain and the processes in place for the delivery of the tourism product. To overcome the perceived inadequacies of the heritage tourism supply chain SMEs engage in entrepreneurial behaviour by attempting to deliver specific products and services to meet the need of tourists. The challenge for tourism organisations is how they can integrate the entrepreneurial, innovative activities of SMEs into the heritage tourism system.     

The destination competitiveness of Kinmen's tourism industry: exploring the interrelationships between tourist perceptions,service performance,customer satisfaction and sustainable tourism

Based upon an empirical investigation, the study draws upon the responses of 1623 tourists in Kinmen to explore the notion of destination competitiveness and how it is related to customer satisfaction with tourists’ perceptions, service performance and destination competitiveness. It also considers the question of destination competitiveness and sustainable tourism development. Variables such as tourists’ pre-visit perceptions, post-visit satisfaction toward destination attractions and resources, willingness to recommend and revisit, and competitiveness with foreign destinations are tested. The results of the study suggest that there is no correlation between tourists’ overall satisfaction and destination competitiveness. Implications of the study outcome illustrate that a destination's unique tourism characteristics can be the most important variables for destination competitiveness. In Kinmen's case, battlefields, historic relics, beautiful scenery and travel security gave it a competitive edge, despite high prices. In addition, developing the destination's brand image was found to be critical for tourism marketers and authorities in the context of increasingly global tourism competition.     

Fuzzy Rasch model in TOPSIS: A new approach for generating fuzzy numbers to assess the competitiveness of the tourism industries in Asian countries

This study proposes a novel approach, the Fuzzy Rasch model, which combines Item Response Theory (IRT) and fuzzy set theory. This paper applies the Fuzzy Rasch model in Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) to analyse the Tourism Destination Competitiveness (TDC) of nine Asian countries: China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and the Philippines. The study was conducted in 2009 using 6 criteria and 15 indices. The results demonstrate the feasibility of applying the Fuzzy Rasch model in TOPSIS to analyse TDC in Asian countries. In addition, the proposed model also provides an effective means of applying the MCDM method to study TDC. Furthermore, in 2009, the Asian countries were ranked from most to least competitive as follows: China, Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Taiwan, Korea and the Philippines.     

Community tourism development scenarios and their use in tourism research

Scenarios have been utilised to a limited degree in tourism and in a number of areas such as in development, sustainability studies, and political decision making. The use of scenarios has primarily concentrated on evaluating people's attitudes and decision processes, as predictions toward perceived future situations for tourism planning, and as a tool in exploratory research. In a recent study conducted in Eastern Australian coastal regions, a set of community tourism scenarios was developed in order to gauge the types of communities with tourism development, and thus explore in more depth the ideologies and platforms which may have influence on decision making in local government. The use of a community tourism scenario, such as developed in this study may have strong implications in broadening the way tourism and community researchers distinguish community attitudes toward present and future tourism development opportunities as well as their corresponding pressures. In addition, it may provide a positive tool for understanding perceived community directions as well as providing a mechanism for gauging planning decisions in a tourism context.     

Obstacles to achieving cross-border tourism governance: A multi-scalar approach focusing on the German-Czech borderlands

This paper aims to identify distinctive obstacles to the establishment of tourism destination governance in both transnational and within-country borderlands. Analysis of the German-Czech borderlands, a region also incorporating within-country borders between three German federal states, indicates the multi-scalar and political contestations of cross-border tourism collaboration. Local tourism projects are generally successful, both on a transnational German-Czech level and between the German states of Bavaria, Saxony and Thuringia. However, structural cross-border destination management does not exist because of (transnational) multi-scalar institutional alignment problems and (internal) tourism-specific destination-level power contestations. Understanding destination management processes in borderlands, therefore, requires: (i) explicit multi-scalar analysis; (ii) recognition of both transnational and within-country contexts; (iii) more cross-pollination between tourism planning and cross-border governance research.