Why Do Some Countries Prosper More in Tourism than Others? Global Competitiveness of Tourism Development

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the competitiveness of tourism destinations, worldwide, utilizing a regional economic policy tool known as the shift-share analysis. The changes in tourist arrivals, tourism receipts, and per-tourist-dollars of each country are assessed and compared with the overall tourism development across 150 countries in the world using a 17-year period (2000-2017). The findings indicate that Japan, Thailand, and Turkey are the most competitive countries when tourist arrivals are specified, but Turkey drops to the least competitive country when tourism receipts are specified as the base indicator. Thailand and Japan rank among the most competitive destinations based on their tourism receipts. Yet further results show that Luxembourg is the most competitive country, demonstrating the largest growth in per-tourist-dollar. Overall, results imply that the competitiveness of the countries and regions vary based on the aggregated measure of tourism development, suggesting that destinations need to focus on growth mechanisms and capitalize on their tourism potential. Practical implications are discussed.