•Analyses the competitiveness of eight tourist regions of Northern Portugal.•Uses Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluation (PROMETHEE).•Applies the Geometrical Analysis for ...Interactive Aid (GAIA).•Assesses the competitiveness using Tourism and Travel Competitiveness Index (TTCI).•Shows that the Porto Metropolitan Area is the leader presenting strengths in almost all indicators.
The competitiveness of tourism destinations is a key issue because it enables destinations to know their position with regard to their competitors. The aim of this paper is threefold: (1) to address the measurement of the competitiveness of tourism destinations at the regional level, (2) to show the suitability of using multi-criteria techniques to measure competitiveness, and (3) to apply the PROMETHEE and GAIA methods within a competitiveness study of eight tourist destinations located in the Northern Region of Portugal. The Metropolitan Area of Porto is the first in the ranking, followed by Cávado and Douro. The results of such an analysis show the comparative strengths and weaknesses of destinations, and allow them to identify their true competitors as well as those other destinations that are most similar to them.
This paper reviews the literature on tourism destination competitiveness from different aspects, focusing on comparative and competitive advantages. Also, the paper highlights the importance of ...information and communication technologies (ICTs) in tourism destinations and their increasing impact on the achievement of destination competitiveness. Thanks to the wider application of ICTs in tourism, tourists nowadays are well informed and have access to global market which creates a new dynamic environment by creating a smart demand. Since smartness emphasizes on ICT-based tools, including smartness integration for value co-creation, it can increase and enhance destination competitiveness. In this regard, special emphasis is placed on exploring the core components of smartness and smart tourism destination.
The purpose of this study is to construct a regional-sector-fishery-offshore and inshore fishery competitiveness index, examine the types and changes of competitiveness, and derive implications by ...processing data of the Survey on the Current Status of Offshore and Inshore Fishery from 2013 to 2020 for this study. The main results of this study can be summarized as follows. First, considering the competitiveness of offshore and inshore fishery by region and year, Jeonnam, Jeju, and Incheon were relatively competitive. Second, considering the competitiveness of inshore fishery by region and year, we found that Jeonnam, Chungnam, Jeonbuk, and Jeju were relatively competitive. Third, looking at the types of competitiveness based on the competitiveness index in the management sector of offshore and inshore fisheries by region and year, Ulsan, Jeonnam, and Gyeongbuk were relatively competitive between 2014 and 2020. Fourth, Jeonnam and Jeju were relatively competitive between 2014 and 2020 based on the competitiveness index in the fishing sector of offshore and inshore fisheries by region and year. Fifth, we found that Jeonnam, Jeju, and Chungnam were relatively strong in the competitiveness of offshore and inshore fishery, combining the offshore and inshore fishery indexes by region and year. The results of this study have some limitation on outlier treatment, grade assignment, and weight for aggregation, so research considering these needs to be done in the future. In conclusion, the results of this study which were derived objectively and scientifically in the era of the 4th industrial revolution, when evidence-based decision-making was becoming critical, are expected to help the central or local governments determine the priority of support projects or investments.
Over the last decade, promotion of competitiveness represents one of the central goals of economic policy of most of the countries. Moreover, in recent years, the promotion of competitiveness has ...been seen as a way of achieving desirable changes in economy and society. While there is no unity of views in the theory regarding the conceptual definition of the phenomenon of competitiveness, it is becoming less arguable that in strictly economic terms, competitiveness is a synonym for productivity. However, it should be noted that productivity growth that is accompanied by increasing social imbalance (for example, inequality in income distribution), on the one hand, and environmental pollution, on the other hand, cannot be a guarantee of improving the competitiveness of countries in the long run. Acknowledging precisely this fact and using the data from World Economic Forum on Global Competitiveness 2013, this paper elaborates on the phenomenon of sustainable competitiveness and tests the hypothesis about the positive impact of its social and environmental dimension on the economic dimension of sustainable competitiveness that is represented by the value of the Global Competitiveness Index. The survey of 34 countries confirmed the indisputable positive impact of the social dimension of sustainability, but also variable direction of the impact of the environmental dimension of sustainability (depending on the level of GDP per capita) on the economic dimension of sustainable competitiveness of European countries in 2013.
China is the most productive seaweed farming country in the world and her seaweed imports and exports have a significant impact on global seaweed trade commodities and food security. Nevertheless, ...few studies had delved into the main characteristics and development of China's seaweed farming industry. This paper aims to narrow this research gap by analyzing trade patterns in China's seaweed products and the international competitiveness of seaweed product by using the international market share index (IMS), the trade competitiveness index (TC), and revealed comparative advantage index (RCA) from 2002 to 2017. The results showed that Japan, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Chile, Peru, and the Republic of Korea are China's main trade partners, the total trade value of China's seaweed products has grown rapidly, its imports have gradually exceeded exports, the trade deficit continues to expand, and its competitiveness keeps decreasing. The reasons for this trend may include the changing seaweed trade commodity structure, product differentiation, increased government support in competing countries, and trade barriers among the trade partners. We propose actively expanding international trade markets, establishing a strong seaweed product processing industry to develop high value-added seaweed products, optimizing the trade commodity structure, and differentiating of seaweed products to improve the competitiveness of China's seaweed products.