Conference tourism competitiveness: An applied AHP framework

Abstract This research aims to develop an applied framework for conference tourism competitiveness since it is evident that there is a limited view of how conference delegates assess attributes contributing to conference tourism. From the literature and industry stakeholder input, conference competitiveness themes and attributes were identified and included in a self-administered questionnaire. Survey data was collected from 300 conference delegates in South Africa. The study applied the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) approach, a methodological approach not previously applied in a conference tourism context. A three-level evaluation structure was constructed with four main factors and 26 sub-factors. It was further established that although destination and conference competitiveness have similar attributes, conference tourism has its own set of unique attributes, which differs in terms of the level of importance for the conference sector. This finding supports the development of the conference competitiveness framework. The findings concluded that conference competitiveness from the view of delegates is influenced by environmental practices as well as political and economic stability being important attributes. Destination attributes such as weather and infrastructure were mentioned as the least important attributes, the rating of which are the opposite of the destination competitiveness attributes. The findings indicated that the AHP methodology is a valuable tool to analyze conference tourism competitiveness.