Sustaining tourism as a vehicle for economic development in any destination depends on maintaining destination competitiveness. What makes a tourism destination truly competitive is its ability to increase tourism expenditure, to increasingly attract visitors while providing them with satisfying memorable experiences and to do so in a profitable way while enhancing the well being of destination residents and preserving the natural capital of the destination for future generation (Ritchie and Crouch, 2003:2). Ritchie and Crouch (2003) identified six dimensions of destination competitiveness, being economical, political, social, cultural, technological and environmental. However, the question that raises here is; which dimension has the priority label when it comes to compete as a tourism destination?
The long term success of a destination heavily depends on how competitive they are in the marketplace and how well they are positioned. Especially on today’s world, competitiveness concept has become even more significant due to the economic downturn and the new consumer trends. Destination management teams are heavily focusing on the six dimensions mentioned above to compete in the market and by doing this trying to increase their market share.
For many destinations around the world, especially developing countries it is almost impossible to focus on all six dimensions at the same time. Consequently, the actors in charge are making priorities among these.
In this case, one specific asset of the Libyan master plan has been analyzed. Libya is located in North Africa and is boarded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north. To date, Libya has been heavily reliant on oil as its main source of foreign exchange earnings. However, the Libyan government identified tourism as a key sector for economic development and diversification and therefore aiming to have an internationally competitive industry.
Due to this fact, Libya has developed the Libyan tourism master plan which includes consideration of the social dimension. Libya, in order to become an internationally competitive tourism destination carried out an analysis of their human resources issues in relation to the hotel sector. The results of this analysis will be used to adapt their master plan. The main results of this analysis showed that there is a lack of cooperation between public and private sector in relation to the human resources. Besides, the country suffered from a poor image in terms of employment conditions and benefits-low social status of hotel jobs and long working hours. E.g. two of these local constraints are legally prescribed low salaries and lack of understanding of the importance of tourism for the country.
Libyan authority mentioned that by identifying these issues and work towards improvement will open the doors of international market towards Libyan tourism institutions to accomplish competitive advantage. Reaching high standard level of quality service is the key to achieve an excellent tourism industry.
People are likely to position destinations in their mind using a set of attributes that determines relative competitiveness (Gursoy, D., Baloglu, S., Christina, G., 2009). One of them is the service received from the local population in a destination. The human resources required to serve the needs of a tourism destination are particularly diverse. Unfortunately, the important role of the human resources in facilitating tourism development has been overlooked or underestimated in several destinations. The important point here is that destinations in the tourism and hospitality sector must recognize that its success depends also upon the partnership between public and private sector (as stated in the Libyan master plan) and the quality of the people it employs. Consequently, it is recommendable to pay more attention to develop the human resources as there are most of the time many issues – not only in Libya but in many other (developing) countries – to be considered, especially in the hotel sector. Hotels are a major component of the tourism industry and human resources issues are important to serve quality and therefore one of the major keys to international competitiveness.
To conclude, employees are critical assets within the tourism and hospitality industry for sustaining and enhancing competitiveness and quality. Consequently, when it comes to market and position your destination within the international market, the starting point is to invest in the social dimension (human resources).
Bibliography List
Article:
Naama, A., Haven-Tang, C., & Jones, E. (2008). Human resource development issues for the hotel sector in Libya: a government perspective. International Journal of Tourism Research, 10(5), 481-492.
Gursoy, D., Baloglu, S., & Christina, G. (2009). Destination Competitiveness of Middle Eastern Countries: An examination of Relative Positioning. An International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Research, 20 (1), 151-163.
Literature:
Brent, R. & Crouch, I.(2003). The competitive destination, A sustainable tourism perspective. United Kingdom: CABI publishing.
Jones, E. & Haven-Tang, C., (2005). Tourism SMEs, Service Quality and Destination Competitiveness. Kingdom: CABI publishing.
Dear Clyrette,
I agree with the importance your article attaches to human resources for a destination’s competitiveness. But I doubt that in practice this is recognized in the tourism industry or a country’s development policies.
Don’t you think that many managers still prioritise the economical dimension and some scientists the environmental one to achieve sustainable tourism and stop climate change? I took it to the extreme now but I sometimes have the feeling that it is true outside our academic and theoratical world.
What do you think? Are all the exemplary tourism master plans really implemented the way they are promising?
Kim Hueneke
(Student TDM Masterprogramme, NHTV)