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The purpose of this paper is to address a new method to evaluate the competitiveness of tourist destinations based on competitive performance from the consumers’ perspective. The main objective is to assess the sources of relative strength and weakness perceived in a destination, and to evaluate its performance vis-à-vis to the main competitors identified by tourists through measurement indexes.

The strengths and weaknesses of the focal destination were identified by plotting 12 tourism-specific variables (attractors) and 12 business-related variables in importance-performance matrix (IPA) grids. The set of destinations identified as “the main competitors” were built according to the frequency they were mentioned, and the indicators of competitiveness were estimated by averaging variables representing dimensions identified by exploratory-confirmatory factor analysis. The variables were aggregated into dimensions to permit comparisons in relation to the main competitors.

The results suggest that tourism-specific variables converge to “tourist attractions” and “conviviality,” and that business-related variables converge into “accessibility,” “infrastructure” and “macrostructure.” The competitiveness against competition was evaluated twice: by using an IPA grid to evaluate competition against “all others,” and by comparing the factors of performance across the most cited competitors. The results show that the focal destination surpasses most of its main competitors in conviviality, but has some deficiencies in tourist attractions, and that dimensions representing the business-related variables fit in the middle.

The authors acknowledge that competitive performance, used as surrogate for competitiveness, is fairly limited once it does not consider the supply side potential forces that also influence the destination competitiveness (DC) at large. But although limited to the demand side, the proxy used to assess (DC) is in accordance with previous literature.

The results have high value to DMO managers, especially to those ones involved in developing tourism attractions.

This research advances over previous works: by identifying the nearest competitors of a destination; and by representing the competitive distance between the focal destination and its main competitors.

This study aims to evaluate the factors influencing certain negative feelings, such as social isolation disorder and loneliness, on consumers’ intentions to travel for tourism.

This quantitative research used a survey questionnaire composed of eight interval evaluation questions and six demographic variables for the data collection. A total of 290 usable responses were gathered from social networks. The evaluation of the Measurement Model adjustment and the verification of the research hypothesis was done by a structural equations modeling.

The results reveal that social isolation is not a monolithic construction; instead of that, it is a construct formed by two interrelated factors, the social isolation itself, involving the individual and her/his personality, and the social integration, a factor of situational order, referring to the relations of the individual with his reference group. Factors are influenced by the ease/difficulty of the individual, in cultivating relationships with other people and significantly influence the intention to travel for tourism.

The study contributes to tourism management by breaking the phenomenon down into two dimensions and evaluating the impact of each of them on consumer attitudes, which should be very useful for the segmentation and positioning of tourism products.

Results support the evidence reported by Murphy, who found that people tend to want to make friends, but that this tendency did not appear to be evident about travel and supported Hawthorne’s findings, that the more socially isolated people are, the less they will want to interact with others, demonstrating that social isolation is indeed an inhibitor of social interaction.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically evaluate residents’ perceptions about the impacts caused by Oktoberfest, in Santa Cruz do Sul, Brazil. More specifically, in addition to identifying how the residents of the destination perceive the impacts promoted by the festival, the study also seeks to validate an instrument that allows the objective measurement of the phenomenon over time.

The data collection instrument is composed of 25 items adapted from Gursoy et al. (2004), Prayag et al. (2013) and Small (2007), and 10 questions obtaining the sociodemographic characteristics of respondents. In data collection, the authors used a non-probability convenience sampling method. This gathering was in September 2016, reaching up to 520 valid questionnaires. The data analysis included mean tests, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis.

Results show management and academic implications. Three dimensions were identified representing the festival’s advantages (economic, identity and socio-integrative benefits), and two other factors corresponding to the drawbacks (environmental costs and psychological and social costs), perceived by residents. The analysis of the factors identified through the various demographic cuts identified the existence of some crucial differences of evaluation between the residents of different genders or ethnic groups, and different ages or length of residence in the municipality. On the other hand, no significant differences were found regarding perceived costs and benefits of the event, among respondents from different civil status, schooling levels or family income.

From the academic point of view, the work offers a reliable instrument to measure the costs and benefits of a consolidated festival, in the view of residents, that can be replicated in the destination studied, or even adapted to other tourist destinations.

The present research seeks to contribute to the existing literature on the impacts of festivals in destinations, combining the theme with residents’ perception, seeking not only to identify the residents’ perceptions about the festival but also to relate these to the characteristics of the population.

This paper aims to investigate the personal values predominating in different academic areas to identify relations that may be of interest to university managers. Exploratory in nature, it seeks to understand how human values can be used to enhance the academic courses according to the profile of each group.

The sample consisted of 1,609 students attending a large Brazilian university, whose values are measured using the Rokeach values survey. The data are firstly submitted to exploratory factor analysis to identify a set of factors later used to construct perceptual maps. Finally, the careers are grouped and typified according to the predominant values in each one.

Results suggest that students of some careers are more prone to be classified through their values than others, but in general terms each professional group shows some particularity. Most careers can be typified by the values students consider more important for them or by the values they depreciate, or by both. In some cases the combination of high evaluation in some dimensions with poor evaluation in others offered greater insight.

The necessity to find a common structure of values applicable to a wide set of careers determined the exclusion of some values from the original scale that, while important for some professions, did not fit others. The lack of uniformity across careers determined the low variance explained by the common structure.

The paper offers interesting insights for university managers, especially those involved in the conception, positioning or repositioning of academic courses.