A review on critical success factors in tourism

Critical success factors have supposedly been studied since the 1960s as part of the Information System (IS) field, and have been applied to the tourism industry since the 1990s. Critical success factors are those aspects that must be well managed in order to achieve success. The key findings of this review reveal that 1. Identifying critical success factors is indeed a popular field of study within the tourism industry; 2. Different methodologies lead to different results; 3. The majority of researchers approached their research from a supply-side; 4. The labelling of critical success factors in previous studies is complex and broad; and 5. Most research has focused on Asia from a geographical point of view. Further findings reveal that quality, finances, and human resources are the factors that appeared among the most frequent found. The findings of this study are based on a total of 52 useable articles which were analysed to provide an overview on where and when these previous studies were published. These key aspects include analyses according to supply and demand, tourism sector, continent, research design, and methodology. By understanding the previous studies on critical success factors, future studies can be more effective and of greater benefit.