Tourism and destination competitiveness: an exploratory analysis applying the forgotten effects theory

In the past two decades, research on tourism or destination competitiveness has increased exponentially. The concept of improving the performance of a destination to deliver goods and services considered important for tourists is highly appealing for policy and decision-makers. Therefore, analyzing the relation between some identified causes of destination competitiveness and the effects they exert on touristic variables of a specific territory may have relevant results. The present work applies the theory of forgotten effects to identify the direct, and indirect cause-effect relationships of the identified variables. Results show that the highest indirect effect is given by the variables hospitality and sustainable development, some other interesting results are those found in causes, destination management, and accessibility; in effects, economic growth, and profitability. This work tries to shed light on the identification and initial measurement of the relevance that competitive variables have on touristic destinations.