Tourism competitiveness assessment: the current status of research in Spain and China

Abstract

This paper examines the status and progress of academic research in assessing and explaining tourism destination competitiveness in Spain and China. The authors first present a theoretical framework for understanding and determining destination competitiveness. Second, in the context of this framework, they analyse major tourism indicators in China and Spain to assess their respective tourism competitiveness. Third, the authors review research on destination competitiveness in China and Spain over the last decade in order to understand how it has been assessed and explained. In all, 25 articles on tourism destination competitiveness in China and Spain are analysed and compared in terms of the approaches and indicators used. The main results of this study lead to a proposal for a model to measure and explain destination competitiveness.