Tourism Destination Competitiveness from a Demand Point of View: An Empirical Analysis for Andalusia

The purpose of this article is to analyze tourism destination competitiveness (TDC) from a demand point of view, evaluating the relevance of different TDC determinants and trying to provide an explanation about how these determinants affect tourists' choices. Specifically, this article proposes a structural equation model for TDC, based on theoretical TDC models. Secondly, the model is tested using a sample of tourists who visited the Spanish region of Andalucía in 2010. After fitting the model, an alternative model is proposed, offering a superior explanation about how destination attributes influence TDC in terms of tourists' duration of the stay, expenditure at the destination level, or the degree to which the destination matches their prior expectations. The main contribution of this article is that the determinants of TDC are evaluated from a demand point of view (tourists' perceptions of the attributes that define the tourism destination value proposition) instead of a supply point of view (destination managers' opinions or experts' judgments). Consequently, some light is shed about how the main factors determining TDC are modulated by tourist perceptions. The relevance of this approach rests on the fact that tourists have the last word when choosing their holiday destination; therefore, it exposes a destination's ability to attract tourists and to provide satisfactory experiences to assure its own competitiveness. Paradoxically, despite the relevance of tourism demand as a factor to explain TDC, very few studies have analyzed TDC from a tourist or demand perspective. Finally, existing theoretical models explaining TDC do not establish causal relationships between its determinants. This article, however, identifies connections between TDC determinants, as well as the influence of these relationships and determinants over TDC.