UNDERLYING DIMENSIONS OF DESTINATION COMPETITIVENESS: A CASE STUDY OF SERBIA

Competitiveness is increasingly being seen as a critical factor affecting the performance of tourism destinations at global markets. Therefore, there is a strong need for continuous and responsible destination management with the aim to achieve and sustain the appropriate level of competitiveness. The purpose of the study is to analyze the latent dimension of competitive structure of Serbian tourism industry. The exploratory (EFA) and confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were employed in order to determine the underlying dimensionality of “destination competitiveness” by exploring correlation patterns among 51 competitiveness attributes selected based on the previous competitive research.
A convenience sampling approach was used. Industry stakeholders in Serbia and experts in the field of tourism and hospitality comprised the target study population. Questionnaires were distributed during the five research months (February- June 2013) via emails by creating the database with contact details of employees in the tourism and hospitality sector. A total of 270 respondents participated in the research. The results obtained reveal that Serbian competitiveness structure comprises four dimensions: sustainable development and climate change, innovation and product development, strategic marketing for sustainability and tourism cooperation and product development.