TOURIST DESTINATION COMPETITIVENESS ASSESSMENT - APPROACH AND LIMITATIONS

Starting from the theoretical concept and determinants of national competitiveness, this article establishes the link with the theory of tourist destination competitiveness, considers the key determinants and practical limitations of globally recognized conceptual models of destination competitiveness, and investigates the methodological robustness of applied (empirical) models for assessing and/or comparing tourism competitiveness of various cotmtries. The analysis leads to the following conclusions: a) apart from their educational/cognitive purpose, due mostly to their complexity, conceptual models for destination competitiveness assessment are of no great use to the practical evaluation of a destination's competitive canacity; b) widely applied empirical models for determination of tourist destinations' competitiveness boil down to the relatively superficial and not too relevant "rankings on the world competitiveness list", mainly because they predominantly rely on socio-economic indicators and neglect the experiential element as the basis of differentiation; c) the assessment of tourist destination competitiveness should pave the way for a proactive destination policy and gradual improvement of a destination's competitive capacity. In this regard, emphasis should be put primarily on the' tourism resources/attractions for which the destination is unique (distinct and/or intemationally recognizable), the factors that determine the success of destination management, as well as on the supporting factors of tourism development. Therefore, an alternative approach to the competitiveness assessment of tourist destinations is recommended.