Gaining competitive advantage through destination branding: a factorial analysis

Tourism in many developing countries is viewed as a strategic industry for socio-economic development. Therefore, competitive strategies are prevalent in marketing key anchor products like sea, sun, sand, and wildlife. The competitiveness of tourism destinations depends on how it is viewed. Formed images, about a place, determine whether to buy or not the product "destination". This paper examines how destination branding can gain competitive advantage by modelling a factorial analysis to check interactions between elements. Study findings indicate a statistically significant association between destination branding and competitive advantage.