ABSTRACT

During the last decade there has been a growing interest in tourism literature in the

notion of the ‘competitive destination’. In the preceding decades competition in

tourism was very often identified with the price component and was frequently

restricted to the micro-level (see Chapter 4). It cannot be denied that for a destina-

tion as well as for an enterprise, price is a vital element of competitiveness (see

Chapters 1 and 3; Dwyer, Forsyth, & Rao, 2000). However, since the beginning of

the 1990s (see AIEST, 1993; Goeldner, Ritchie, & McIntosh, 2000; Poon, 1993)

the tourism sector and tourism scientists have been aware that besides comparative

advantages and price, many other variables determine the competitiveness of a

tourism enterprise or destination. More and more authors and practitioners are

focusing on the competitive destination.