Egypt’s Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index in Comparison to Competitive Tourism Destinations in the Middle East and North Africa Region

Abstract

Nowadays tourism has become one the most important industries in the global economy. It has succeeded to support many economies and has been considered a remarkable generator of direct and indirect job opportunities. Therefore, many countries are trying to increase their competitiveness in order to attract tourists and satisfy their needs. Competitiveness is rather a relative concept depending on the variables in question. Many competitiveness models emerged during the last decades. Some of these modelsfocused on the resources, climate, geography of the destinations, while others focused on the level of sustainability adoption and others regarded prices as the major factor affecting competitiveness. This study aims at evaluating the competitiveness of the Travel and Tourism (T&T) sector in Egypt versus some competitive destinations in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region. The analysis was based on the secondary data provided by the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report of 2017 issued by the World economic Forum.The report identified some important sub-indexes such as enabling environment, infrastructure, T&T policies and enabling conditions, cultural and natural resources as indicators for T&T competitiveness. In order to answer the research questions, Pearson’s correlation was conducted to assess the strength and direction of relationship between the overall T&T competitiveness index and other sub-indexes. A PESTEL analysis was also conducted to examine whether Egypt has the potentials to enhance its competitive position worldwide if effective destination management policies were applied. The analysis showed that the chosen countries differentiate to a certain extent in some indicators while they share others. As Bahrain and Saudi Arabia are heading others in the pillars related to “Labor market and human resources” and “ICT readiness”, “T&T prioritization” is highly ranked in Jordan, Egypt and Morocco compared to others. Nevertheless, all countries share a drawback in pillar “International openness”. Pearson’s correlation showed that pillars “Business environment”, “Air transport infrastructure” and “ICT readiness” have a stronger positive relationship to the variable overall T&T competitiveness index compared to other variables. The PESTEL analysis revealed that Egypt has the potentials and resources that can support it to enhance its competitiveness in the region. These potentials include “Price competitiveness”, “Prioritization of T&T” by the government, “Cultural and natural resources” in addition to “Air infrastructure”. These strengths have to be sustained by government policies and weaknesses like political instabilities should be effectively restrained in order to improve Egypt’s competitiveness worldwide.