Tourism Competitiveness and Tourism Sector Performance: Empirical Insights based on Income Groups and Regions According to Statistics and Facts for Analyses

Adequate research attention has been given to the determinants of tourism competitiveness. However, there is dearth of empirical studies on the relationship between tourism competitiveness and tourism performance. This study evaluates the impact of Tourism Competitiveness on tourism performance. It captures heterogeneity of the countries and measures of tourism competitiveness and performance. Using three-stage least square for panel data, the findings reveal that Tourism Competitiveness is a major driver of the tourism performance across regions and income groups of countries. Moreover, the effect is heterogeneous. Infrastructure is a universal driver of tourism performance while policy conditions, enabling environment, and natural and cultural resources are also critical determinants of tourism performance. Hence, for countries around the world to motivate the performance of the tourism sector, stakeholders should give sufficient attention to the improvement of the TC and consider the multidimensional nature of the Tourism Competitiveness and tourism performance correlation in their policy frameworks. They provide policy recommendation suitable for each region and income groups of countries. Keywords: Tourism competitiveness; Tourism arrivals; Tourism receipts; Tourism GDP; Tourism performance; Travel and Tourism competitiveness index