Zahra Nadalipour - (PhD) Faculty of Tourism, University of Science and Culture, Tehran, Iran
Ali Asghar Taghipour - University Lecturer, Tehran, Iran

Competitiveness is a famous word frequently mentioned in the management and economics literature. In recent decades, this concept has been entered into tourism literature and has received growing recognition. Over the past years, many studies have dealt with issues such as identifying key attributes of destination competitiveness, determining importance of competitiveness factors, investigating positions of the particular destinations and developing models of destination competitiveness. Most of these studies aim to help destination managers to identify weaknesses and strengths of the destinations; but results of the said studies relatively differ in identifying importance of the competitiveness factors. Hence, the central questions underlying this paper were put: Which variables must be considered when analysing importance of competitiveness determinations After reviewing literature to identify different approaches to the study of destination competitiveness, and discussion about topics such as different political ideologies, governance and managerial structures, different stages of development and destinations’ life cycle, as well as difference between destination competitiveness and attractiveness, it was concluded that differences in results of these studies may be due to different situations in which such studies have been done. These situations refer to the different political structures, distinct ideologies of politicians, different development stages and tourism lifecycles or different views of experts who are surveyed in the case studies. Furthermore, differences between destination competitiveness and its attractiveness must be taken into account when analysing destination competitiveness.

destination competitiveness (DC), destination attractiveness, competitiveness attributes, political ideologies