Examination of the hospitality industry in terms of competitiveness: The case of Antalya

The Concept of competition is identified by Economic theorists, entrepreneurs, scientists in different perspectives. The simplest definition of competition is that it?s a race between those that pursue the same purpose. When the literatüre is reviewed, it is seen that the most important contribution about the concept of competition has benn made by American scientist Michael PORTER. Porter examined the concept of competition in three ways which are the competition in country, sector and firms. He also indicates that the competitiveness of a country will only improve if the competition will improve between countries. For the competitiveness of a business, products and services offered to consumers at less cost than competitors, lower prices, and product and service quality by adding additional features beyond the production will take place.As known, the firms are not only competitor with local firms, but also competitor with international firms.Most of the firms which are in the free market economies, can achieve a stable market share if they set long-term competitive strategies. In order, to implement successful competitive market strategies, the market must be well analyzed. For that, the firms must always be supplied with flow of information about the competitors? marketing strategies. In addition, the precautions that will be taken against the opponents? strategies should be determined.One of the fastest developing sectors since 1950s is the service sector. How one of service sector enterprises, the tourism accommodation sector, see one another as rivals and competitors, what kind of actions they prefer to develop against each other make up the is core of this study. For this study, five star hotels in Antalya where the tourism business clusters are intense have been taken as sample and the hotel managers? responses to given questionnaire have been tried to evaluate with tables.Keywords: Tourism, Competitiveness, Hotel Industry, Marketing Strategies, Diamond Model