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Measuring destination competitiveness: an exploratory study of the canaries, mainland spain, france, the balearics and italy
Measuring destination competitiveness: an
exploratory study of the canaries, mainland spain,
france, the balearics and italy 1
Jaume Garau-Taberner
ABSTRACT
jaume.garau@uib.es
The main purpose of this paper is to present an instrument aimed at identifying and measuring
factors that determine competitiveness in Mediterranean sun and sand destinations. The study
is divided into three parts. The first analyses the concept of competitiveness when applied
to the tourist sector, reviewing different attempts to measure it (proposals that have been
shown to be unsatisfactory). In the second part, an index is presented that is intended to
improve on former proposals. Finally, the paper concludes with a preview of the results of a
pilot study aimed at measuring competitiveness, where factors that play a decisive role in
competitiveness are identified through a case study of five Mediterranean destinations (the
Canaries, mainland Spain, France, the Balearics and Italy).
Keywords: Destination competitiveness; mass tourism; Mediterranean destinations
1. INTRODUCTION
Maintaining or raising the price of exports of tourism services is no easy task because: i)
destinations which offer a similar type of product are easily interreplaceable (Mangion et al.,
2005); ii) today’s tourism supply has achieved an unprecedented level of excellence,
quantitatively and qualitatively and in terms of the variety of available services (WTO, 2003;
Aguiló et al., 2005; Go and Grovers, 2005); and iii) although the demand for tourism is
increasing, the growth rate has fallen considerably, particularly in comparison with the growth
rates of the last fifty years (WTO, 2003; Papatheodorou and Song, 2005).
Given this scenario, the only way to raise the price of exports is to make a destination’s tourist
industry more competitive. That is, destinations must be capable of attracting and satisfying
current and potential new customers, and doing it better than their rivals. In short, destination
competitiveness is becoming increasingly important, particularly when economies or countries
are heavily dependent on tourism (Gooroochurn and Sugiyarto, 2005).
In recent years, studies of destination competitiveness have come to acquire an increasing
relevance in academic literature. In continuation, an analysis will be made of the concept of
Tourism Today - Fall 2007 - Full Paper
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