The Development of a Regional Tourism Destination Competitiveness Measurement Instrument

Abstract

The importance of the tourism sector has been highlighted and featured in various studies indicating not only the economic but also social and environmental benefits. There is a need for a measurement instrument for regional tourism destination competitiveness. This measurement instrument could gauge a destination’s regional potential for tourism development and competitiveness; and be able to compare regions. To conduct an instrument development and validation, both PLS-SEM for confirmatory factor analysis and SPSS were utilised for exploratory factor analysis. A purposive sampling approach were used for both study areas, Sedibeng and Fezile Dabi district municipal regions, in which pilot studies were executed through a survey between July to September 2020. The reliability of the measurement instrument was confirmed with Cronbach’s Alpha (α) for both samples having a value above 0.70. The EFA confirmed the validity of the measurement instrument for the three-dimension and 16-items of the measurement instrument. This study recommends using the measurement instrument as a practical tool to analyse regions regarding the development and competitiveness of a tourism destination compared to other destinations.

Keywords

• factor analysis
• measurement instrument
• South Africa
• tourism destination competitiveness