Empirical Evidence on Convergence of Travel and Tourism Competitiveness and Global Competitiveness Across the BRIC Countries

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine whether global competitiveness and travel and tourism competitiveness converge across the BRIC countries, and whether travel and tourism competitiveness influences global competitiveness. Utilizing the theoretical frameworks of ß-convergence, s-convergence, and time-series-convergence, our findings confirmed the presence of convergence of the aforementioned variables across the BRIC countries. Additionally, utilizing the growth tracing theoretical framework, our findings confirmed that travel and tourism competitiveness positively influences global competitiveness across the BRIC countries.