From Territorial Capabilities to Tourism Competitiveness: A Process Theory of Territorial Conversion, Value Capture and Recursive Capability Reinforcement

Destination competitiveness research has progressively incorporated governance, infrastructure, sustainability, skills and business-environment variables. However, it still lacks a sufficiently explicit account of how broader territorial capabilities are converted into tourism-specific outcomes, how the value generated by tourism is retained locally, and how tourism subsequently reinforces or erodes the capabilities on which it depends. This conceptual paper addresses that problem through an integrative synthesis of destination competitiveness, regional attractiveness, place-based development, innovation systems and resident well-being literature. It proposes the Territorial Tourism Competitiveness Framework (TTCF), organised as a dynamic process rather than a static list of determinants. The model distinguishes five analytical components: Territorial Capability Stocks, Territorial Conversion Capacity, Tourism Competitiveness Outcomes, Territorial Value Capture, and Recursive Capability Reinforcement. Institutional coordination, absorptive capacity, ecological limits, economic structure and development stage are treated as boundary conditions that shape the strength and direction of these relationships. The paper argues that tourism growth, tourism competitiveness and territorial development are analytically distinct. A territory may record strong visitor performance while remaining economically fragile if value leakage, low productivity, excessive seasonality or declining resident well-being prevent tourism-generated value from being retained and reinvested. Seven theoretical propositions are advanced to guide empirical testing. The framework contributes by shifting attention from the possession of tourism assets to the processes through which territories mobilise, convert, capture and regenerate value.