Resumen de Integrated Destination Competitiveness Model: testing Its Validity and Data Accessibility
Larry Dwyer, Ljubica Knezevic' Cvelba, Tanja Mihalic, Matjaz Koman
Destination competitiveness has attracted much attention from researchers over the past two decades. The Integrated Destination Competitiveness Model has been used to explore destination competitiveness in many contexts including Australia, Korea, Slovenia, and Serbia. Given its popularity with tourism researchers and its application to destination competitiveness studies world-wide, it is appropriate to undertake a rigorous test of the destination competitiveness attributes identified in this model, their validity and indicator accessibility to researchers and practitioners. Testing the 83 destination competitiveness attributes of this major model can inform researchers about the appropriateness of the model structure, the validity of the groupings of destination competitiveness attributes, and the relevance of different indicators to destination attributes. The data used for testing are comprehensive, covering 139 countries worldwide in the period 2007 to 2011. The testing process confirms the value of the Integrated Model in understanding a destination's competitiveness indicators, the gains from which will be more informed policy making regarding the type of tourism development most likely to enhance resident quality of economic and social life.
