Determinants of tourist arrivals in European Mediterranean countries: Analysis of competitiveness

Luisa Marti,Rosa Puertas

doi:10.54055/ejtr.v15i.267

Abstract

This research employs a gravity framework to evaluate the tourism in European Mediterranean countries. The paper analyses the destination competitiveness as a means for tourism attraction and also verifies whether more competitive countries can be used as a point of reference for the development of those lagging behind. The gravity equations are used because of their proven effectiveness in estimating other similar studies fields. The study focuses on the Mediterranean European countries, mainly due essentially, to the wide span of their positions along the TTCI ranking (Spain ranks first, whereas Montenegro is in 67th place). Results reveal that these European destinations are not efficiently exploiting their tourism capacity and they need apply policies to foster this economic activity and enable the transformation of competitiveness into greater numbers of visitors.

Highlights

The tourism sector is an important source of growth and employment generation, which explains the increasingly noted efforts to offer quality services to attract a larger volume of visitors
The study focuses on the Mediterranean European countries, mainly due essentially, to the wide span of their positions along the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI) ranking (Spain ranks first, whereas Montenegro is in 67th place)
Applying the methodology presented in the previous section, gravity equations have been estimated for each of the models specified, differentiating when using TTCI tourist competitiveness as a proxy or their components individually

Summary

Introduction

The tourism sector is an important source of growth and employment generation, which explains the increasingly noted efforts to offer quality services to attract a larger volume of visitors. According to the latest data form the World Tourism Organization (WTO), globally, the arrival of international tourists has increased from 527 million in 1995 to 1,138 million in 2014. This increase implies that countries with a large tourist attraction have raised their incomes from 104,000 million dollars in 1995 to 1.425 billion dollars in 2014. Forecasting suggests that this tendency will be maintained in the coming years. The WTO (2011) has estimated a 3.3% annual growth rate for international tourist arrivals for the year 2030. It even suggests that arrivals at emergent destinations will double those of advanced economies (4.4% versus 2.2%)

Objectives

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Results

Conclusion