COMPETITIVENESS AND QUALITY OF TOURIST DESTINATIONS. THE CASE OF SEASIDE RESORTS IN THE CANARY ISLANDS

Abstract

This paper compares the level of competitiveness among the four main touristic Islands in the Canaries (Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria y Tenerife) through a combination of different variables. The paper is embedded in the broader debate about the mechanisms for repositioning traditional sea and sun tourism destination through the implementation of quality management mechanisms in the tourism industry. A twofold approach has been followed to measure competitiveness. On the one hand, an analysis of available statistics on tourist expenditure, occupation level and the evolution of tourists and tourists beds has been done. On the other hand, a case study on the internet, analyzing prices for two significant tourist packages for each of the four islands considered has been developed. Both approaches show that in spite of the quality strategy followed by Lanzarote, this does not lead to a higher economic profitability for the tourism sector of the island, as compared to others. Therefore, it seems that even though quality is often claimed to be a key factor for competitiveness, it is not so clear that markets are willing to pay higher prices for higher quality.