Perception of Tourist Destination Product: Key Indicators of Destination Competitiveness

• Published in: Teme Vol. XL; no. 2; pp. 853 - 868
• Main Authors: Pavlović, Danijel, Avlijaš, Goran, Stanić, Nenad
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Niš 2016; Универзитет у Нишу
• Subjects: Tourism; tourist perception; competitiveness; tourist destination product; product elements
• ISSN: 0353-7919

The integrated tourist destination product creates the tourist experience, and its improvement contributes to the development and competitiveness of the destination. Therefore, the tourist experience can be considered as fundamental for the success of the tourist destination. The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between integrated destination product and tourist destination competitiveness. The proposed approach is tested on the example of two destinations with different tourism performance in the tourism region of Western Serbia. In order to measure the visitors’ perceptions related to the tourist experience, survey method and t-test statistic were used. Obtained results confirmed significant difference in the assessment of integrated product of two destinations, which confirmed the starting hypothesis that perception of integrated destination product can be used as indicator of tourist destination competitiveness.