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Viju Mathew, Ph.D., Asst. Professor, MOHE, College of Applied Science Salalah, Salalah, Sultanate of
Oman.
ABSTRACT
Sustainability is a multidimensional concept that encompasses not just environmental protection but also
extends to economic development and social equity (Gladwin, et al., 1995). The tourism system is a complex
social system and considered as a smokeless industry which operates within the micro and macro
environments considering all factors of competitiveness and sustainability. Tourism Industry Forecast
indicates that the tourism industry is growing at a faster rate with large number of tourist flow over the world.
In case of South Asian countries the experience and opportunities can be elaborated in various areas of travel
and tourism. Inspite, of having massive infrastructure, support facilities and travel and tour destination with
great value chain has not yet received great attention from the global tourist community and have not yet in
the global ranking of highest tourist destination arrivals. This paper tries to find various components of
sustainable tourism in case of destination competitiveness with special reference to South Asia. The paper
will also suggest the strategies and competitiveness development method recognizing pattern of development,
need to incorporate input, recognizing destination competitiveness as an intermediate goal towards growth.
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communication within and outside the countries has enable the population to explore larger
opportunities.
Community participation during the early stages is negligible. The view of understanding
tourism as the major source of employment, growth and development has not been accepted.
The community participation in terms of travel and tour was also apparent. Surrounding
communities within the regions were largely regarded as competition and as a threat. The
narrow and short strategies have been liked to explore opportunity. Lack of strategies and
actions planned at national level become the constraint to tap the opportunities.
Lack of continuous mentoring and support to the people involved in the tourism sector has
discouraged the new entrants. The initiatives to develop cities, regions and states are often
short at both state and national level planning. The short of insufficient financial support,
external guidance, basic infrastructure, licensing, support etc has restricted the industry to
grow.
Lack of coordinated effort towards the development of tourism and strategy for improving the
competitiveness and attraction, specifically in case of destinations in South Asia. In this
regard, the sector needs lack of policy, planning and marketing which can be put forward for
improving the tourism in South Asian countries.
Lack of entrepreneurial initiative guided by the government or non government institution in
the tourism sector has become the constraints for identifying opportunities, formulate business
plan, take calculative risk, develop market, arrange finance, innovation etc.
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Sustainable
Process
- Build image
- Competency
- Design
- Development
- Product
development
- Quality
management
- Sell
- Service delivery
Destination
Marketing
- Promotion
- Attraction
- Sales
- Events
- Target marketing
- Strategic Positioning
- Innovation
- Others
Leverages/ operation
- Brand Management
- Core competencies
- CRM
- Expansion
- Exploring
opportunities
- Positioning
- Strength & weakness
Sustainable Services
- Services experiences
- Hospitality
-Accommodation
- Entertainment
- Society focus
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environment development (Mihalic, T. 2000) and other which directly support the key drivers to
achieve the competitiveness and are crucial for many forms of tourism and visitor satisfaction
(Buckley, 1994). Support activities also affect both the volume and pattern of tourism flows
throughout the world (Dwyer, 2001). Supporting factor provide necessary foundation for a strong
tourism sector (Crouch and Ritchie, 1995). The drivers and the support activities are combined
together which directly affect the process and service. To sustain the activities for the long term
should have strong support activity driving the key success factor. McKercher (1998) observes
that more proximate destinations exhibit a competitive advantage over destinations that offer a
similar product, but are more distant. Dwyer (2001) emphasized that the competitiveness maintain
and increase the real income reflecting in the standard of living of the country. The
competitiveness of an economy directly linked with the income, standard of living, development
and market condition. The model that has been developed (Fig. 1) to bring together the main
elements of sustainable destination competitiveness as the main indicator. The drivers of
sustainable destination competitiveness are explained below:
Inputs
Examine all activities and the items which act as inputs necessary for initiating the process
within the system. Crouch et al (2000) explained that destination input model including strategies,
vision provides a direction for development. Destination can enhance its competitiveness through
specialization, innovation, investment, productivity (Crouch et al 2000). Inputs include Business
plan, Competencies, Cooperation, Entrepreneurs, Investments (Hassan, 2000), Leadership
(Ritchie, 1999) and Heath, 2000) , objectives, vision people (Bueno, 1999), policy (Crouch et al
2000), portfolio, resources, strategies (Heath, 2000).
Sustainable Process
The process is considered as the backbone of all which act as strong support to conduct all other
activities. Process acts as a powerful attracting force for the prospective visitor (Prentice, 1993,
Murphy et al 2000). These attractors are more diversified and greater its attractiveness and
therefore competitiveness will be (Crouch et al, 2000). It focuses on broadening competencies in
new arrangements which will enable to become more consistent by the optimization of resources.
Leverages/ Operations
Activities allow focusing on its internal strengths and becoming more receptive by entering into
strategic partnerships with suppliers with competencies in new expansion and operations. The
levers will directly address the main issue to solve the problems which will create core
competencies.
Destination Marketing
Destination Marketing is considered as the most important in the competitive world these days.
It focuses on creating awareness, promoting product and services, communication, creating brand
image, developing network channels through various mean of promotion and marketing tools.
Destination marketing (Gilbert, 1990) includes promotion, attraction, sales, events, target
marketing (Crouch and Ritchie 1993), strategic positioning (Kotler, 1997), innovation. Marketing
strategies help highlighting the service differentiate its products from the competition. It focuses
on the destination competitive advantage and develops and positions the destination in the
customers mind.
Sustainable Service
These are the activities that a company offers to enhance and sustain products and its
competitive value. Murphy et al (2000) explained that the lack of appropriate service which
facilitate the travel like accommodation, entertainment affect tourist experiences and that the
availability is an important predictor of both destination quality and perceived trip value.
Providing value for money is increasingly regarded as one of the key challenges facing any
tourism destination as is the perception of value (Buhalis, 2000). Gilbert (1990), Poon (1993) and
Porter (1990) emphasized value-competitive advantages can be achieved through innovation of
services. Hospitality relates to attitude towards tourists (Dwyer 2001) which satisfy the tourist
from the destination creating advantage. Enhancing tourist experiences must be made to ensure
quality of service approach to visitor satisfaction (Go and Govers 2000).
87
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VIJU MATHEW*
8.
Industry collaboration cooperation and decision making for a problem domain about the
future of (Gray 1985)
9. Involving a diverse range of stakeholders in tourism destination development and planning
(Edgells 1990)
10. Indepth tourism researchers (Ritchie 1993; Helling 1998)
11. Community representation for sustainable and strategic tourism planning for tourism
destinations (Cooper 2002)
12. Developing and implementing distinctive strategies to deliver a sustainable destination
(Cooper 2002).
13. Analyzing tourism destination competitiveness as the need to incorporate input into
competitiveness research (Dwyer, Livaic and Mellor 2003)
14. Finding direct consumer oriented indirect measures (Hudson, Ritchie and Timur 2004).
CONCLUSION
Study of tourism destination competitiveness continues to gain interest amongst tourism
researchers (Evans, Fox and Johnson 1995; Faulkner, Oppermann, and Fredline 1999). The
research is significant of understanding competitiveness variables to destinations in case of South
Asian countries. With the late recognition the tourism sector in some of the developing countries
in south Asia has received attention and various institutions have taken initiative to explore the
possibility of tourism. The ability of infrastructure and other components together to be
maintained and introduced to sustain the destinations appeal and support the economic growth.
Sustainability destination competitiveness framework enables to understand various influential
factors which affect the overall activities creating a long term effect. The competitiveness of an
economy directly linked with the income, standard of living, development and market condition.
The model (Fig. 1) to bring together the main elements of sustainable destination competitiveness
as the main indicator. The drivers and strategies for sustainable destination competitiveness are
framed finding direct consumer oriented measures for sustainable developing Asia as tourist
destination in global competition and strong distinct image for the future of tourism.
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