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The competitiveness of tourist destinations has been the subject of great research interest in recent decades. Nevertheless, and despite the diversity in the literature, studies focusing on the empirical validation of tourism destination models of competitiveness have still to be completed. Hence, this research project seeks to contribute to filling this shortcoming through the identification and evaluation of the factors underlying tourism destination competitiveness in Portugal. The study methodology adopted requires primary data that were sourced from a questionnaire deployed as a structured research instrument based upon the variables put forward by the Dwyer and Kim model (2003). Through recourse to structural equation models, the results report the existence of significant relationships between resources, supply and tourism destination management as the core and essential factors to the competitiveness of a particular tourist destination.

Building on a TripAdvisor data for five Mediterranean destinations, namely, Greece, Croatia, Italy, France and Spain, this study analyses the constituents of restaurants' online reputation and their interrelation with destination competitiveness, in particular two Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI) pillars, namely, Prioritisation of Travel and Tourism and Price Competitiveness.

The analysis has revealed that restaurants' online reputation is positively influenced by two factors, namely, Core elements, i.e. cooking, service and price-quality ratio, and Price. Furthermore, the restaurants' online reputation does not influence destination competitiveness (TTCI) directly, but indirectly throughout its main constituents, i.e. service and price. Price is the only variable with significant influence on overall TTCI. Within the sample of these destinations, Balkan countries, i.e. Greece and Croatia, perform very well in terms of their restaurants' online reputation. On the other hand, considering the overall TTCI rating, their competitive positions are substantially lower than those of Italy, France and Spain.

The study provides new insights into the relationship between gastronomic offer and destination competitiveness, and valuable practical implications for destination and hospitality management. Moreover, this study addresses various gaps in existing research on this topic. Specifically, it validates the reputation elements presented online using TripAdvisor data and analyses the impact of electronic Word of Mouth (eWOM) not only as the outcome variable of other constructs, as is the case in the literature, but also as a central construct of the analysis. In doing so, it extends current research on this topic and fills the gap regarding the inclusion of the supply-side stakeholder perspective, which has long been recognised as necessary in any attempts to measure competitiveness.

Tourism is one of the most important and rapidly growing sectors for economic, cultural and global development of a country. Competition between tourist destinations is increasingly intense and is played internationally in a globalized scenario, where each destination competes with new and different competing destinations. In view of this, the tourism sector has had to equip itself with appropriate decision-making tools for studying and analyzing the competitiveness of the destinations. This chapter focuses on its analysis on the countries bordering on the Mediterranean Sea, one of the areas with the greatest worldwide attractiveness to tourists, characterized by different levels and models of tourism development. There are areas traditionally dedicated to hospitality, considered world leaders (such as France, Spain and Italy) and countries that have grown rapidly in their wake (Croatia and Greece), and on the other, more recently emerged destinations (Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia) that compete very well, focussing on an ‘exotic’ seaside offer accessible to all. The aim of this chapter is to carry out a research on the tourism competitiveness of Mediterranean countries. The analysis is based on the 14 pillars described in the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2019. In order to see how the 14 pillars of the competitiveness index are grouping on the countries, we applied the principal component analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis.

Purpose: The main goal of this discussion is to explain how competitiveness could be an important source of knowledge and economic power in a society, especially in the period of higher demands on knowledge, innovation and organisational base growth. Our focus of the discussion will be tourism as an important service sector economic activity in countries all over the world.

Methodology: The chapter will be conceptually based on its goal to develop the theories of competitiveness and to discuss how competitiveness influences knowledge, organisational processes and forms with a focus on tourism services.

Findings: Competitiveness in tourism depends on many factors. As an intangible source of knowledge, organisational culture processes and organisational forms generally influences tourism activity. For this reason, not only is comparative advantage important in the competitiveness concept, but also competitive advantage and the way of deploying resources play an important role.

Significance: Resources are not only based on labour, capital and land (neoclassical theory approach), but resource-advantage theory underlines the importance of financial, physical, legal, human, organisational, informational and relational capital. In this process, new processes and organisational forms must be created, as well as innovative approaches to processes and the importance of knowledge capital.

Practical Implications: New ideas about this process could be helpful for researchers and practitioners to recognise the importance of competitiveness for their work and research.

Local natural and cultural resources should be the basic elements to differentiate destinations through innovative products and services, in order to ensure both their competitiveness and sustainability in the long run. This chapter covers a critical literature review on the topics of innovation, differentiation, competitiveness, and sustainability in tourism. A panel data model is developed in order to define regional demand functions for regions in Portugal, Spain, France, and Italy, estimating the influence of natural and cultural heritage, innovation, and other “traditional” factors of competitiveness on the attractiveness of tourism destinations.

The objective of this paper is to present an analysis on the competitiveness of Romania as a tourism destination, based on Porter's diamond model. The model developed in this paper seeks to capture the main elements of competitiveness highlighted in the literature, while appreciating the special issues involved in exploring the notion of destination competitiveness as emphasized by tourism researchers. An overview of the Romanian tourism industry is included to test the findings of the proposed research model. Throughout the analysis, the paper also focuses on the most competitive export products and their prospects for improvement. The study allows for the identification of different tourism products potential, and can be used by industry and government to identify opportunities for competitiveness enhancement.

Tourism is considered today to be the leading economic activity, contributing more than 10% to the world's gross domestic product. Given its importance, especially in developing countries, it becomes significant to study ways to improve its competitiveness. This chapter discusses ways to enhance the development and competitiveness of tourism regions. It uses local or territorial economic development and empowerment as its theoretical frameworks in order to examine social capital. The focus will be on how the latter can be a factor supporting tourism development at local levels. Lebanese regions are used to show how social capital is affecting competitiveness.

This chapter examines the competitiveness of the tourism cluster in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by applying Porter's competitiveness of nation diamond model, with its four dimensions: factor conditions, demand conditions, the related and supporting industries, and, lastly, the firm's strategy and rivalry. Specifically, we provide a thorough analysis of the UAE's strategic plans, initiatives, and tactics to cultivate competitiveness in tourism across the nation. This includes the draft of a vision for the nation, decisions to build and reinforce their infrastructure, determination to develop and nurture skilled workforce, ability to respond innovatively to their customers' evolving demands, selection of the appropriate base for competition, and, finally, continuous melioration of related industries. Examining secondary data and by reviewing governmental reports, we find that UAE did not cultivate a national advantage by owning random natural resources, but rather by having a strategic intent to converge all their efforts and to deliberately build a coherent cluster in the tourism sector. The chapter also provides some limitations and recommendations for future research.

The purpose of this chapter is to present secondary data around how the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) are adopted in a global context whilst making comparisons with the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index from the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2019. The discussion is centred around young adults (Generation Z) and their potential role and importance. In essence, we are trying to examine if tourism sustainability educational practice adopted within countries appears to transition into industry practice. For this, we consider success both from the perspective of tourism sustainability and general economic competitiveness. The findings suggest significant gaps (or current failure) between PRME delivery and achieving tourism sustainability globally, but generally highlight economic success where PRME uptake is strong. Thus, it would appear that PRME is not yet transitioning into industry practice; therefore, more needs to be done or adapted to achieve greater tourism sustainability, and we emphasise the role of Generation Z within this.