Tourist destination and territorial competitiveness: a closer look from geography to territorial competitiveness and the role of the territory as a competitive factor

Abstract

The main objective of this text is to ponder the topic of territorial competitiveness in tourism through a geographical perspective. After a general, conceptual, theoretical analysis of competitiveness and territorial competitiveness, the tourism industry was approached to undertake a specific scientific analysis of tourist destination, understanding this as how the spatial organization of the production and tourist consumption take place. This theoretical destination reality involves the existence of complex geographical relationships that influence competitiveness and that are, to a great extent, external influences for the companies working in the field. Consequently, it can be stated that there is territorial competitiveness in tourism, which is conceptually different from all other individual competitive aspects of each company operating in a given geographical area; as well as the importance of territorial geographic factors, understood from the quantitative and qualitative point of view, when defining said competitiveness.