| dc.description.abstract | The aim of this study was to investigate the determinants of tourism destination competitiveness in order to develop an index that could empirically measure tourism competitiveness in a region where the tourism sector has many resources that could contribute to the economic and social welfare of South Africa. This country experiences exceptionally high unemployment rates and its key sectors (manufacturing and mining) are underperforming, causing a poorly performing economy. Since competitiveness is essential to fuel economic growth and economic development to ensure the success of a region, South Africa should identify a viable sector in which investment could encourage competitiveness and in turn, economic prosperity. The tourism sector is known for its easy market entry, various and multiple employment opportunities and export contribution, and furthermore, because South Africa is characterised as a country with diverse cultures, beautiful scenery and abundant fauna and flora, the correct management and branding could attract tourism arrivals. While the importance of tourism destination competitiveness and national tourism competitiveness have been investigated through various studies, most of these have focussed on factors influencing the tourism destination competitiveness of a nation. This study therefore set out to fill a gap in the body of knowledge by focussing on the said determinants of tourism destination competitiveness to develop a method of empirically measuring the competitiveness of a region. To achieve these, it focussed on a Regional Tourism Destination Competitiveness Index which was formulated as an empirical measure of tourism competitiveness for which determinants were identified and selected through a literature review of theories and models relating to the competitiveness of tourism destinations. Subsequently, a Regional Tourism Destination Competitiveness questionnaire was formulated and given to selected respondents with knowledge of tourism and development research and who are active in the tourism sector. In addition, a statistical time–series analysis was conducted by use of Panel Pooled Mean Group–Autoregressive Distributes Lag models. The models analysed the relationship between tourism and economic variables (Model 1) and tourism and social variables (Model 2) for all nine provinces of South Africa from 2001 to 2017. This method investigated the correlation and long– and short–run relation between these variables. Firstly, the results indicated that the most crucial determinants required for achieving tourism destination competitiveness are: natural environmental resources, safety and security, transportation facilities, accommodation facilities as well as food and drink. Those with the least significant impact on tourism destination competitiveness are: private–public partnerships, education facilities, labour force and health facilities. Secondly, results from the econometric analysis revealed that a long–run relationship exists between tourism and the economic variables: Ltrade_gdp, Lgdp, Lunemp, Leap and Linc and between tourism and social variables: Lhdi, Lcrim, Linfra, Lgini, Lpov and Lpop. In the short–run, it was found that a relationship exists between tourism and economic variables as well as tourism and social variables. It is recommended that collaboration between the private and public sector should increase in their participation in the activities of the tourism industry as well as tourism research. Creating a positive tourism destination brand and, relaxing tourism regulation will encourage tourist arrivals. Future research could investigate the perceptions of the three types of participants in tourism namely, tourist, businesses and government on the importance and level of success of specific determinants. | en_US |
