Thomas KRABOKOUKIS
Researcher, Department of Planning and Regional Development, University of Thessaly, Pedion Areos, Volos, 38334, Greece
tkrabokoukis@uth.gr
Serafeim POLYZOS
Professor, Department of Planning and Regional Development, University of Thessaly, Pedion Areos, Volos, 38334, Greece
spolyzos@uth.gr
Abstract
Within the context that tourism competitiveness is a complex concept, this article proposes a conceptual framework and uses Pena’s P2 distance synthetic index (DP2) to classify the Greek prefectures according to their competitiveness. This paper aims to define the potentials of Greek prefectures through the tourism competitiveness index. Additionally, examines the relationship between tourism competitiveness and tourism seasonality which is a significant phenomenon that affects tourism every destination globally. The study utilizes a total of 66 variables, and the data were processed using the Package ‘p2distance’ in R Studio. The analysis reveals four groups according to their values in the tourism competitiveness index (DP2) and tourism seasonality (RSI). In these four groups, tourism carrying capacity and tourism saturation indexes from previous studies are also presented in the last section. Overall, the analysis supports multidisciplinary and synthetic research in the modeling of tourism research and promotes the DP2 synthetic index in the study of tourism competitiveness. The overall analysis can propose a tool for tourism management and regional policy, as these are complex concepts. The proposed approach advances the DP2 index as a quantitative measure for tourism competitiveness and compares the results with tourism seasonality
Keywords: tourism competitiveness, tourism attractiveness, tourism seasonality, regional and tourism development, DP2 synthetic index
JEL classification: R10, R11, R58, C43, Z32
pp. 55-70