Global Travel and Tourism Competitiveness: An Evaluation of Iran Tourism industry in the world

This paper aims to examine tourism competitiveness positions of the countries based on competitiveness factors presented in Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report published by the World Economic Forum in 2013. In fact, it aims to determine the most and least effective factors in determining countries competitiveness positions. Then this study focuses on Iran and investigates its effective competitiveness factors with respect to other countries competitiveness positions. For this reason, 140 countries were clustered in the similar groups using Cluster Analysis technique and secondary data drawn from the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI) were analyzed. Multi-Dimensional Scaling (MDS) technique was also employed in order to determine effectiveness of 14 competitiveness factors. Results show that countries can be divided into 5 distinct clusters and Iran along with 19 other countries mostly from developing countries falls into the same cluster. In this cluster, price competitiveness is the most effective competitiveness factor. Also, results of MDS analysis indicated that the most effective factors in determining competitive positions of 140 countries can be listed as; tourism infrastructure, cultural resources, air transportation, ICT infrastructure and environmental sustainability. On the other hand, price competitiveness was the least effective factor. Results also indicate that Iran has the highest score only in price competitiveness. Finally, further analysis and some arguments are presented about Iran s competitiveness position.

Keywords:

Destination competitiveness , Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI) , cluster analysis , Multi-Dimensional Scaling (MDS) , Iran