Relationship between competitiveness of destinations and tourism specialization: An analysis in the digital age

Currently, within the tourism market, there is a significant number of destinations that offer the same product, especially in the sun and beach market, so the search for competitiveness must be the objective that allows increasing the arrival of tourists to a destination, becoming one of the main pillars on which tourism policies are based. In this context, this paper aims is to ascertain whether there exists a causal relationship between tourism competitiveness and the influx of tourists to destinations. To achieve this, the Granger causality test is utilized, employing the econometric adaptation conducted by Dumitrescu and Hurlin, utilizing a sample of 18 Mediterranean countries spanning from 2007 to 2019. From the analysis carried out, it is highlighted that there is no causal relationship from tourism competitiveness to the number of tourists received, which is an important finding in the countries of the Mediterranean coast, since tourists do not value competitiveness in these destinations.