Exploring destination competitiveness from a social development perspective : evidences from Southeast Asia

Abstract

Asia-Pacific region has become an increasingly important tourist destination and now ranks second behind Europe in terms of total visitors, surpassing the Americas in 2001. Southeast Asia has a strong potential to capitalize on international tourism growth and to participate in the strong regional growth trends in the Asia-Pacific region. The rapid expansion of both international and domestic tourism in Southeast Asia increased the awareness of the need for a comprehensive view of the social, economic, cultural, environmental and political issues, processes and problems related to tourism development and to understand its dynamics and impacts. This study attempted to serve two purposes: (1) to gain a better understanding of destination competitiveness by exploring its factors from a social development perspective; and (2) to develop a conceptual model showing the interrelationships of destination competitiveness and a destination's development goals. This study sought to build on previous research suggesting that competitiveness, however measured, centers on human development, growth and improved quality of life. The results of the Delphi survey indicate that in order to achieve and sustain tourism competitiveness in the region the key fundamental elements of competitiveness should be developed and managed properly by the country destinations of Southeast Asia. The panel experts considered the core resources and attractors, the supporting factors and resources, destination management, and demand conditions as the most important for the Southeast Asian country destinations. A framework derived from the results of the experts survey was proposed illustrating the interrelationships between the processes and outcomes of tourism and development. The processes and outcomes of tourism serving as a catalyst for a destination's future economic and social development depends on the destination's state of human development. For Southeast Asia, there appears to be a link between human development and tourism competitiveness. In the absence of a more comprehensive and adequate database to build on the identified indicators of destination competitiveness, monitoring tourism development using the tourist intensity rate and the human development of the country destinations using the composite index HDI can provide insights on the progress towards achieving tourism competitiveness.