Linking Destination Competitiveness to Performance. An Analytical Perspective

Destination competitiveness and performance are among the most challenging areas of concern and analysis, key concepts of the tourism industry. Tourism destination is often associated in management discourse along with the terms competitiveness and performance and although they are used at a great extent, both in professional and academic environments, conceptualizing and measuring them raises a great interest, as the short and long-term success of destinations are dependant on their competitiveness and performance. Whereas for any Destination Management Organizations (DMO), it is of fundamental importance to be able to assess the linkage between competitiveness and performance and use it as a management tool in the development of tourism. The concepts of destinationDestinations competitivenessCompetitiveness and destinationDestinations performancePerformance have been discussed in management studies for a few decades already, but despite the numerous attempts, there is no general agreement about how they should be defined and linked. While the performancePerformance evaluation frameworksFrameworks and methods are still debating, it should be noted that the tourismTourism destinationDestinations performancePerformance is a complex notion with puzzling elements and aspects that must be analysed thoroughly. Based on the literature review, there are three directions of analysis, but, regardless of the standpoint, researchers appreciate that performancePerformance is fundamentally linked to the competitivenessCompetitiveness of tourismTourism destinationsDestinations, as a significant measurementMeasurements of destinationDestinations competitivenessCompetitiveness is actually performancePerformance. The main purpose of this paper is to assess the linkage between destinationDestinations competitivenessCompetitiveness and destinationDestinations performancePerformance and overcome the challenges related to their conceptualization and measurementMeasurements. This article analyses the concept of performancePerformance arising from the mainstream approach of traditional goals orientation, efficiency and effectiveness, and the input and output perspective. The paper concludes that performancePerformance can be seen as either result or an element of the competitivenessCompetitiveness approach. The link between competitivenessCompetitiveness and performancePerformance depends on the existence of a goal-driven strategy, where performancePerformance is the final result. More, the implementation of market performancePerformance indicators and the degree of economic efficiency contribute to the development of destinationDestinations competitivenessCompetitiveness as a whole.