In its annual statistics for 2019\u2014the year before the start of the global COVID-19 pandemic\u2014the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) reported that tourism had experienced a tenth year of continued growth. With 1.5 billion international tourist arrivals worldwide, tourism contributed an estimated $9 trillion a year to the global economy and was one of the world\u2019s largest industries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fast forward to 2021, and tourism is one of the industries most affected by the global pandemic. The UNWTO now reports that international tourist arrivals fell by 72% between January and October 2020, due to countries\u2019 efforts to contain the virus, travel restrictions, and low traveller confidence. The loss of global revenues is estimated to be around $1 trillion\u2014ten times that experienced after the 2009 global economic crisis\u2014and this has hit developing countries dependent on tourism particularly hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the world prepares to rebuild its tourist economy, new research by Rosen College\u2019s Associate Dean, Dr. Robertico Croes, together with colleagues Dr. Jorge Ridderstaat and Dr. Valeriya Shapoval, is timely. Published in the prestigious international journal Annals of Tourism Research<\/em>, their study \u201cExtending tourism competitiveness to human development\u201d looks at the links between tourism competitiveness and human development and presents a new \u201cTourism Competitiveness Theory Hypothesis\u201d and typology model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n TOURISM COMPETITIVENESS<\/strong> The two approaches appear mutually exclusive and may have different outcomes. For example, the market approach may imply the pursuit of \u201cmonopolistic objectives\u201d and \u201champer the goal of well-being\u201d, whereas the internally focused approach \u201ccentres on productivity to enhance well-being and to pay higher wages.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tourism competitiveness has many inputs and is a \u201cmultidimensional concept determined by economic, political, ecological and cultural variables.\u201d As a result, tourism competitiveness is inherently hard to measure and not all the variables carry the same weight. For example, a country\u2019s rich cultural heritage does not automatically result in the enhanced well-being of indigenous communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Croes, Dr. Ridderstaat and Dr. Shapoval argue that there are two main premises behind the tourism competitiveness construct. The first is that the tourism product relies on instrumental activities that have costs and benefits and result in revenue. The second is that the tourism product is built on a framework of limited, costly and depletable resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n HUMAN DEVELOPMENT<\/strong> The Human Development Index (HDI) launched by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in 1990 studies data from 189 countries, allowing for the measurement of human development between countries and over time. The UN\u2019s approach shifts attention from inputs, such as incomes and possessions, to outcomes, such as the ability to live a good life. Various indicators are used to quantify how countries perform on each dimension. For example, in addition to economic measures and GDP, the HDI considers literacy rates, life expectancy, and expected years of schooling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Rosen College researchers argue that the HDI approach is particularly helpful regarding tourism competitiveness. This is not least because tourism competitiveness provides the material resources to support human development by increasing people\u2019s choices and opportunities to realize healthy, fulfilling lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n THE HYPOTHESIS<\/strong> The hypothesis developed by the researchers proposes that tourism competitiveness has four characteristics: \u201clong-term performance moored in productivity;\u201d \u201cresource and asset control which references product quality and derived memorable experiences;\u201d \u201crelativity, which is the ability to attract tourists over competing destinations;\u201d and \u201cdynamic processes, which implies that the product constantly evolves by building capabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Croes, Dr. Ridderstaat and Dr. Shapoval argue that tourism competitiveness is conceptually linked to human development in a mutually beneficial way. The Tourism Competitiveness Theory Hypothesis they propose reflects the reciprocal nature of the relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CASE STUDY APPROACH<\/strong> As the researchers note, while the countries may have some regional affinities, they vary in terms of area, population, economy, per capita income, income inequality and tourism exports. In addition, though tourism represents one-third of the region\u2019s exports, \u201ctourism output is modest and regional competition small.\u201d For example, South America\u2019s total revenue from tourism in 2018 was US $30 billion compared to a revenue of US $32 billion in the Caribbean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite this, South America has significant tourist potential. For example, it possesses no fewer than 76 UNESCO world heritage sites and the Amazon rainforest is one of the most biodiverse environments in the world. The region has also in recent years demonstrated sustained economic growth and reductions in income inequality, though a quarter of the population remains poor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Using data covering the period 1998\u20132014 from various sources\u2014including the World Economic Forum, United Nations and World Bank\u2014the researchers conducted an in-depth analysis using sophisticated statistical techniques to compare tourism performance and identify patterns across the 10 sample countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The researchers then designed a typology model identifying four distinct country behaviours, highlighting the way tourism competitiveness and human development are linked. The types identified are \u201cvirtuous,\u201d meaning good tourism competitiveness enhances human development, which further boosts tourism competitiveness in turn; \u201cvicious,\u201d meaning weak tourism competitiveness hampers human development, which weakens tourism competitiveness yet further; \u201ctourism competitiveness lopsided,\u201d meaning strong tourism competitiveness is combined with weak human development; and \u201chuman development lopsided,\u201d meaning strong human development coupled with weak tourism competitiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n FINDINGS<\/strong> Another pattern identified in the research was that few countries stayed in the same category over time. The exceptions were Ecuador, which stayed in the \u201cvirtuous\u201d quadrant, and Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay, which stayed in the \u201chuman development lopsided\u201d category for the whole research period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The study found that most countries moved from one category to another, regressing or progressing through time. For example, Venezuela regressed from being a \u201cvirtuous destination\u201d between 1998\u20132006 to being a \u201cvicious destination\u201d more recently. Other countries showed less dramatic shifts, with Argentina regressing from a \u201cvirtuous destination\u201d in the first part of the study to a \u201chuman development lopsided\u201d destination in recent years. Bolivia and Colombia also regressed in tourism competitiveness, though human development remained stable. Only Brazil remained stable in human development while becoming stronger in tourism competitiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n WIDER IMPLICATIONS<\/strong> The research suggests further that while human development significantly affects tourism competitiveness, tourism competitiveness only partially affects human development. The report recommends that countries should strive to deepen the links between tourism and human development and recognise that they are mutually reinforcing and interdependent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Though focused on South America, the study\u2019s recommendations are of wider global interest. In particular, it suggests that national tourism strategies should seek to promote more arrivals and higher tourism revenues, in order to benefit household as well as government revenues. In addition, strategies should be less concerned with the amount of government revenue raised, and more concerned with how revenues are used to benefit human development, particularly health.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In its annual statistics for 2019\u2014the year before the start of the global COVID-19 pandemic\u2014the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) reported that tourism had experienced a tenth year of continued growth. With 1.5 billion international tourist arrivals worldwide, tourism contributed an estimated $9 trillion a year to the global economy and was one of…","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":573,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-summer-2021"],"acf":[],"views":50,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hospitality.ucf.edu\/rrr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hospitality.ucf.edu\/rrr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hospitality.ucf.edu\/rrr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hospitality.ucf.edu\/rrr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/52"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hospitality.ucf.edu\/rrr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/hospitality.ucf.edu\/rrr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1804,"href":"https:\/\/hospitality.ucf.edu\/rrr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568\/revisions\/1804"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hospitality.ucf.edu\/rrr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hospitality.ucf.edu\/rrr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hospitality.ucf.edu\/rrr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hospitality.ucf.edu\/rrr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
The initial literature review conducted by the Rosen College researchers reveals that tourism competitiveness has multiple definitions. They identify two main approaches: one which \u201cfocuses on internal attributes and abilities, aiming at enhancing residents\u2019 well-being\u201d and another which \u201clinks tourism to market position revealed in larger numbers of tourist arrivals.\u201d Put simply, one approach prioritises the social, while the other is concerned with the economic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is widely recognised that tourism can be a catalyst for economic and social development, not least through the provision of employment. This is especially important in developing regions, where the UNWTO estimates that up to 40% of jobs are generated by tourism. However, as the researchers explain, human development is about more than income: it is also about capability and whether people have the resources to be able to choose from the opportunities available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The study redefines tourism competitiveness as \u201cthe reconfiguration of resources, assets, and services toward a product that increases satisfying and memorable tourist experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The study examines two main questions to test the theory: what is the conceptual connection between tourism competitiveness and human development, and does the connection explain differences in tourism competitiveness over time? Taking a case study approach, the research focuses on 10 South American countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The majority of the 10 countries were found to be either in the \u201chuman development lopsided\u201d or \u201cvicious\u201d destination categories. According to the researchers, these findings suggest that in these destinations tourism competitiveness has been relatively depressed, or the countries have not made tourism development a priority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This latest research from Rosen College researchers brings the competitiveness and capabilities concepts together in the formulation of a new Tourism Competitiveness Theory Hypothesis. The study finds: \u201cTourism growth resulting from arrivals and receipts seems to expand capabilities directly, suggesting that as average receipts increase, the population seems to have higher commands of resources (health and education), which in turn enhances tourism performance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n