Publication Details
Abstract
Tourism is gradually being recognized as a substantial contributor to economic growth and cross cultural exchange in the world which imposes a pressure on the stakeholders to strike a balance between short term competitiveness and sustainability. The relationship between competitiveness in tourism and sustainable practices is an emerging research question within the destination development field as competition increases in pastures and more consumers are interested in environmental issues. Despite its significance, empirical research efforts on the association between sustainability and competitiveness are scarce, with most of the previous studies basing their research on the two constructs on separate basis as opposed to collectively. The given research pursues a quantitative analysis of the relationship between sustainable development and competitiveness of tourist destinations, applying such international indices as the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Index. The empirical results performed a very high positive dependence (r = 0.8368), and the regression analysis reveals that relationships are not linear progressing whereby the advance in sustainability results in disproportionately higher benefits to the tourism competitiveness. The importance of the study lies in the confirmation of sustainability as a competitive advantage component in the strategy which is statistically approved and gave an empirical base to theoretical assumptions. These findings indicate that tourism destination managers and policymakers should be keen to ensure sustainability in tourism planning because they will not only obtain environmental and ethical benefits but also the economic gains. The analysis, therefore, contributes better all-round appreciation of the issue of sustainable tourism development and acts as a foundation of future micro level and longitudinal studies.