Critiquing the World Economic Forum's concept of destination competitiveness: A further analysis

The World Economic Forum evaluated and ranked global travel and tourism competitiveness using the three subindices and fourteen pillars of Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI). While measuring the overall scores, all subindices/pillars are inherently treated with equal importance. It is suggested this approach limits the quality of information for policymakers and inhibits better decision-makings. To add value to the TTCI, this study explores the causal relationships among the subindices and pillars affecting the overall rankings. A framework is proposed that integrates the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) for benchmarking analysis, the Bayesian Network (BN) classifiers for cause–effect hypotheses development, and the Partial Least Squares (PLS) path modeling for hypotheses testing. Consequently it is suggested that this improved approach can facilitate policymakers to better understand the nature of a destination's competitive standing.

► This study aims to add values to the TTCI.
► The proposed framework enables us to discover the imperative pillars affecting the overall rankings.
► It is applicable to policymakers facing problems of how to explore imperative factors.