Tourism Destination Competitiveness Ranking and Tourism Performance

Abstract

This research note compares the impacts of the macroeconomic condition on the relationship between tourism destination competitiveness (TDC) ranking and tourism performance. This study utilized the cross-country analysis of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI) data among 115 countries. Macroeconomic conditions are conceptualized in high-income versus low-income nations, while the WEF TTCI ranking explains the TDC ranking. The Partial-least square-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) Multi-Group Analysis (MGA) results showed that TTCI ranking significantly influenced the low-income group’s tourism performance only but not for the developed ones. The results confirm the criticism of the TTCI ranking bias, reflecting the unbalanced competitiveness assessment distribution between advanced and low-income countries. The study findings augment the incomparability among countries on different levels of development and the arbitrary weighting of the TTCI ranking report, which may lead to inaccurate perceptions of the country and incorrect investment decisions.