Determinants of tourism destination competitiveness in the countries most visited by international tourists: Proposal of a synthetic index

• Published in: Tourism management perspectives Vol. 33; p. 100582
• Main Authors: Salinas Fernández, José Antonio, Serdeira Azevedo, Paula, Martín Martín, José María, Rodríguez Martín, José Antonio
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01-01-2020
• Subjects: Determinants of tourism competitiveness; Distance P2; Synthetic index; Tourism destination competitiveness; Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index; Tourism destination competitiveness; Synthetic index; Distance P2; Determinants of tourism competitiveness; Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index
• ISSN: 2211-9736; 2211-9744
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tmp.2019.100582

Tourism destination competitiveness is a multidimensional concept that is widely studied in the academic literature, but multiple factors make its measurement a difficult task. In this article, we design a synthetic index to rank the 80 countries that attract the majority of international tourists by level of tourism competitiveness. In order to do this, we use all of the simple variables included in the 2017 Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index, proposing a new methodology for the construction of this synthetic index, which it solves the problems of aggregation of variables expressed in different measures, arbitrary weighting and duplicity of information; issues that remain unresolved by the TTCI. Likewise, we analyse the most influential dimensions in tourism competitiveness. Air transport infrastructures, cultural resources and ICT readiness are the key dimensions that explain the main disparities.
•This paper proposes construction of a synthetic index to classify 80 countries by the level of tourism competitiveness.•The new synthetic index uses the variables included in the, 2017 Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI).•A new methodology is applied to construct this synthetic index, that solves the main problems of the TTCI.•We identified the key pillars or dimensions in tourism competitiveness.•Results reveal that the most competitive countries attract more international tourists.