Influential factors in the competitiveness of mature tourism destinations

With a few exceptions, the traditional models that aim at identifying the factors that influence the competitiveness of tourism destinations are very difficult to operationalise because they need a large number of indicators to inform the concepts. This paper presents a different approach that p...

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Main Authors: Margarida Custódio Santos, Ana Maria Ferreira, Carlos Costa
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of the Algarve - ESGHT - CIEO 2014-01-01
Series:Tourism & Management Studies
Subjects:
Online Access:https://tmstudies.net/index.php/ectms/article/view/650/1160
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author Margarida Custódio Santos
Ana Maria Ferreira
Carlos Costa
author_facet Margarida Custódio Santos
Ana Maria Ferreira
Carlos Costa
author_sort Margarida Custódio Santos
collection DOAJ
description With a few exceptions, the traditional models that aim at identifying the factors that influence the competitiveness of tourism destinations are very difficult to operationalise because they need a large number of indicators to inform the concepts. This paper presents a different approach that postulates that researchers should try to identify the specific factors that impact competitiveness of tourism destinations according to the stage of the destinations’ life cycle. With the aim of identifying these specific factors, an extensive literature review was undertaken, focusing in particular on the papers that explicitly recognised that the destinations under analysis in the studies were in the mature stage of their lifecycle. From the literature review, we concluded that the specific factors able to negatively influence the performance of mature tourism destinations can be grouped into four areas. The first area concerns the deterioration of the destinations’ infrastructure; the second is related to the destinations’ management, namely the lack of a shared strategic vision among stakeholders; the third area is associated with the loss of economic vitality in the destinations; finally, the fourth area includes the impact of tourism development over the years on the territory, specifically social, environmental and cultural impacts. The results obtained from the empirical study allow us to conclude that the lack of environmental problems, not being overdeveloped in terms of construction and having maintained authenticity are all perceived by tourists as more important for the competitiveness of tourism destinations than factors normally considered more relevant, such as prices and the quality of accommodations.
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spelling doaj.art-313f82284475486990d83f09415468502022-12-22T03:17:14ZengUniversity of the Algarve - ESGHT - CIEOTourism & Management Studies2182-84662014-01-011017381Influential factors in the competitiveness of mature tourism destinationsMargarida Custódio Santos0Ana Maria Ferreira1Carlos Costa2University of the Algarve, School of Management, Hospitality and Tourism, Campus da Penha, 35, 8005-139, Faro, PortugalUniversity of Évora, Department of Sociology, 7004-516, Évora, PortugalUniversity of Aveiro, Department of Economics, Management and Industrial Engineering, GOVCOPP, 3810-193, Aveiro, PortugalWith a few exceptions, the traditional models that aim at identifying the factors that influence the competitiveness of tourism destinations are very difficult to operationalise because they need a large number of indicators to inform the concepts. This paper presents a different approach that postulates that researchers should try to identify the specific factors that impact competitiveness of tourism destinations according to the stage of the destinations’ life cycle. With the aim of identifying these specific factors, an extensive literature review was undertaken, focusing in particular on the papers that explicitly recognised that the destinations under analysis in the studies were in the mature stage of their lifecycle. From the literature review, we concluded that the specific factors able to negatively influence the performance of mature tourism destinations can be grouped into four areas. The first area concerns the deterioration of the destinations’ infrastructure; the second is related to the destinations’ management, namely the lack of a shared strategic vision among stakeholders; the third area is associated with the loss of economic vitality in the destinations; finally, the fourth area includes the impact of tourism development over the years on the territory, specifically social, environmental and cultural impacts. The results obtained from the empirical study allow us to conclude that the lack of environmental problems, not being overdeveloped in terms of construction and having maintained authenticity are all perceived by tourists as more important for the competitiveness of tourism destinations than factors normally considered more relevant, such as prices and the quality of accommodations.https://tmstudies.net/index.php/ectms/article/view/650/1160competitivenessspecific factorsmature tourism destinations
spellingShingle Margarida Custódio Santos
Ana Maria Ferreira
Carlos Costa
Influential factors in the competitiveness of mature tourism destinations
Tourism & Management Studies
competitiveness
specific factors
mature tourism destinations
title Influential factors in the competitiveness of mature tourism destinations
title_full Influential factors in the competitiveness of mature tourism destinations
title_fullStr Influential factors in the competitiveness of mature tourism destinations
title_full_unstemmed Influential factors in the competitiveness of mature tourism destinations
title_short Influential factors in the competitiveness of mature tourism destinations
title_sort influential factors in the competitiveness of mature tourism destinations
topic competitiveness
specific factors
mature tourism destinations
url https://tmstudies.net/index.php/ectms/article/view/650/1160
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AT anamariaferreira influentialfactorsinthecompetitivenessofmaturetourismdestinations
AT carloscosta influentialfactorsinthecompetitivenessofmaturetourismdestinations