Destination competitiveness—Applying different models, the case of Slovenia

A tourism country's competitiveness is important especially when countries strive for bigger market shares. Tourism managers have to identify and explore competitive advantages and analyse the destination's competitive position. The degree to which a country can benefit from its tourism sector depends largely on this sector's competitive position in the international tourist market. This paper refers to the De Keyser–Vanhove model of a competitive destination, which was applied to Slovenia in 1998. It also studies the Integrated model of destination competitiveness developed in a collaborative effort of researchers dealing with the cases of Korea and Australia and examines its determinants and individual competitive indicators as perceived by Slovenian tourist stakeholders on the supply side. The result shows that Slovenia is more competitive in its natural, cultural and created resources, but less competitive in the management of tourism and, according to the Integrated model, demand conditions, with both uncompetitive elements reducing the Slovenian tourism industry's ability to add value. The end discussion points out weaknesses in the development of tourism competitiveness models and calls for greater unity with the competitiveness factor theory and for more caution when creating the main competitiveness factors and models.