Journal of Tourism & Hospitality
Open Access

Abstract

The Determinants of Tourism Destination Competitiveness (TDC): PLSPath Model of Structural Equation Modeling

Hiyab Gebretsadik Weldearegay

To determine the exogenous and endogenous latent constructs of tourism destination competitiveness (TDC), Partial Least Square (PLS) path modeling of the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is used with a 2013 data of 78 economies. Siding to a post-positivism research paradigm, the following conclusions are drawn. The exogenous latent construct “urbanization” is found to have a strong, positive and direct effect on the outcome variable which signifies that the number of worldwide psycho-centric tourists is marginally higher than allo-centric and mid-centric tourists together, which has great policy and marketing implications. The path relationship between demand conditions and TDC was found statistically significant, but negative. The exogenous latent construct “complementary conditions” took the first rank on the power of explaining TDC. This confirms the theoretical postulate that this construct amplifies Impulse Travel Decision of highly spending tourists which increases spending per arrival ratio and thereby to TDC.