Author Bios (50 Words for each Author)
Prof Berendien A. Lubbe
Berendien is currently Head of the Division: Tourism Management at the University of Pretoria Her current research in the tourism field covers topics such as tourism competitiveness, the role of air transport in tourism, eTourism and business travel. She is a National Research Foundation of South Africa rated researcher and has published her research in international journals.
Prof Felicite Fairer-Wessels
Felicite is an Associate Professor in the Division: Tourism Management in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. She holds a PhD in Information Science and she conducts research concerning the dissemination of information in the areas of community development, sustainable and ecotourism, event management and heritage sites.
Dr Anneli Douglas
Anneli is a senior lecturer in the Divison: Tourism Management at the University of Pretoria. She specialises in tourism distribution and more specifically business and corporate travel. She holds a Doctorate in Tourism Management. Anneli has a keen interest in developing the field of business and corporate travel. Her research has been published in internationally accredited scientific journals, and she has delivered papers at international academic conferences.
Dr Elizabeth A. du Preez
Elizabeth holds a DCom and is a senior lecturer in the Division: Tourism Management at the University of Pretoria, lecturing at under and post graduate levels. Areas of research interest include sports tourism and destination marketing. Her doctoral study focused on the issue of environmentally responsible behaviour of sport event spectators.
Abstract (150 Words)
Regional competitiveness and domestic tourism is increasingly important for a sustainable tourism economy at national level. The development of a competitive provincial index for the South African emerging domestic market is under scrutiny/investigation. Provincial competitiveness is a province’s ability to optimize its attractiveness for domestic tourists by offering quality, innovative and attractive tourism services to gain domestic market share, while ensuring that available resources supporting tourism are used efficiently and in a sustainable way. Competitiveness at provincial level will ultimately result in national competitiveness as issues of supply are addressed (at local level). Factors and indicators relevant to selected regions/provinces/destinations are empirically identified through focus groups and a sample of 1065 emerging tourists in eight provinces of South Africa. A Tourism and Travel Market Indicators Index consisting of nine validated factors are proposed that can be used to compare the competitiveness of regions based on factors most relevant to the domestic market.
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Since June 03, 2016
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Regional competitiveness: an emerging domestic market segment perspective
Regional competitiveness and domestic tourism is increasingly important for a sustainable tourism economy at national level. The development of a competitive provincial index for the South African emerging domestic market is under scrutiny/investigation. Provincial competitiveness is a province’s ability to optimize its attractiveness for domestic tourists by offering quality, innovative and attractive tourism services to gain domestic market share, while ensuring that available resources supporting tourism are used efficiently and in a sustainable way. Competitiveness at provincial level will ultimately result in national competitiveness as issues of supply are addressed (at local level). Factors and indicators relevant to selected regions/provinces/destinations are empirically identified through focus groups and a sample of 1065 emerging tourists in eight provinces of South Africa. A Tourism and Travel Market Indicators Index consisting of nine validated factors are proposed that can be used to compare the competitiveness of regions based on factors most relevant to the domestic market.
