Serbia’s competitive position in the regional tourism destination market

  • Milivoj Teodorović Singidunum University
  • Jovan Popesku Singidunum University

Abstract


The paper analyzes a competitive position of Serbia as a destination in the regional tourism market.  The regional market includes Serbia’s neighboring countries enhanced by Austria, Slovenia and Greece to provide a better view of the competitive landscape of the Southeast European region herein called “Extended Balkan”.  The gap analysis was applied to the selected number of global secondary indices to highlight the differential effects that impact Serbia’s position in different domains and categories, which in turn, has a profound effect on Serbia’s ability to attract, delight and retain visitors.  The emphasis of this theoretical paper is on the concept and methodology rather than on the selection of indices.  The paper caters to both practitioners and academics by contributing to the literature on destination competitiveness through the lens of the positioning theory.

References

Aaker, D. (1996). Building Strong Brands. New York: The Free Press.

Aaker, D. (1991). Managing Brand Equity. New York: The Free Press.

Anholt, S. (2004). Editor’s foreword to the first issue. Place Branding and Public Policy. 1(1) , 4-11.

Ashworth, G., & Kavaratzis, M. (2010). Place branding: where do we stand? In A. Gregory, & M. Kavaratzis, Towards Effective Place Brand Management. Branding European Cities and Regions (pp. 1-14). Northampton: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Blain, C., Levy, S., & Ritchie, J. (2005). Destination branding: Insights and practices from destination management organizations. Journal of Travel Research. 43(May) , 328-338.

Boo, S. Y., Busser, J. A., & Baloglu, S. (2009). A model of customer-based brand. Tourism Management , 219-231.

Brand Finance. (2015). Nations Brands 2015. London: Brand Finance.

Buhmann, A., & Ingenhoff, D. (2013). Advancing the Country Image Construct from a Public Relations Perspective: The Constitution of the County Image and its Effect on Travel Behavior. EUPRERA 2013 Congress, (pp. 1-17). Barcelona Spain.

Chen, Q., & Wells, W. D. (1999). Attitude Toward the Site. Journal of Advertising Research, 39(5), 27-38.

Dupeyras, A., & MacCallum, N. (2013). Indicators for Measuring Competitiveness in Tourism: A Guidance Document. OECD Publishing.

Dwyer, L. (2015). Destination Competitiveness: Challenges for Transition Economies. SITCON 2015 Presentation . Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana.

Economics, T. (2015). Credit Rating. Retrieved 2015, from Trading Economics: http://www.tradingeconomics.com/country-list/rating

Fabiutti, M., & Tench, R. (2015, January). Are we talking the same language? Challenging complexity in country brand models. Athens Journal of Business and Economics, 49-61.

Fetscherin, M. (2010). The determinants and measurement of a country brand: the country brand strength index. International Marketing Review, Vol 27 Iss: 4 , 466-479.

Future Brand. (2015). Country Brand Index 2014-15. Future Brand.

Gartner, W. C., & Ruzzier, M. K. (2011). Tourism Destination Brand Equity Dimensions: Renewal versus Repeat Market. Journal of Travel Research, 471-481.

Go, F. M., & Govers, R. (2011). International place branding yearbook 2011: managing reputational risk. Individual chapter’s contributors. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

GOI. (2015). Global Opportunity Index. Santa Monica: Milken Institute.

HDI. (2014). Human Development Index. New York: UNDP.

Heritage. (2016). 2016 Index of Economic Freedom. Retrieved 2016, from Heritage: http://www.heritage.org/index/

IEP. (2016). Global Peace Index 2016. New York: Institute for Economics and Peace.

IMF. (2016, August 16). Report for Selected Countries and Subjects. Retrieved July 20, 2016, from International Monetary Fund: https://www.imf.org

INSEAD. (2015). The Global Innovation Index 2015. Geneva: Cornell University, INSEAD and World Intellectual Properties.

Keller, K. (1993). Conceptualizing, measuring, and managing customer‐based brand equity. Journal of Marketing, 57 , 1‐22.

Keller, K. L. (2013). Strategic Brand Management. In K. L. Keller, Strategic Brand Management Building, Measuring and Managing Brand Equity. Essex: Pearson.

Keller, K. L., & Lehmann, D. R. (2002). Measuring Brand Equity. Hanover, N.H. : Dartmouth College, Working Paper.

Kladou, S., Giannopoulos, A. A., & Mavragani, E. (2015). Destination Brand Equity Research from 2001 to 2011. Tourism Analysis , 189-200.

Knoema. (2016). Travel & Tourism Total Contribution to GDP. Retrieved July 15, 2016, from knoema.com: https://knoema.com/atlas/topics/Tourism/Travel-and-Tourism-Total-Contribution-to-GDP/Total-Contribution-to-GDP-percent-share

Konecnik, M., & Gartner, W. C. (2007). Customer-based brand equity for a destination. Annals of Tourism Research , 400-421.

Kotler, P., & Keller, K. L. (2012). Marketing Management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Lee, H., Ju-Pak, K.-H., & i Hong, M. (2015). Comparative Perspectives on Brand Value of Place Slogans: Analysis of Different Cities, States, and Countries. American International Journal of Social Science, 59-70.

Martilla, J., & James, J. (1977). Importance-Performance Analysis. Journal of Marketing (pre-1986), 41(000001) , 77-79.

Mihailovich, P. (2006). Kinship Branding: A Concept of Holism and Evaluation for the Nation Brand . Place Branding , 229-247.

Moilanen, T., & Rainisto, S. (2009). How to brand nations, cities and destinations: a planning book for place branding. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Morgan, N., Pritchard, A., & Piggott, R. (2002). New Zealand, 100% Pure. The creation of a powerful niche destination brand. Journal of Brand Management 9(4-5) , 335-354.

NFA. (2015). National Footprint Accounts. Oakland, CA: Global Footprint Network.

Numbeo. (2016, April 2). Retrieved December 2, 2015, from Numbeo: http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/

Park, S., & Petrick, J. (2006). Destinations’ perspectives of branding. Annals of Tourism Research. 33(1) , 262-265.

Pike, S. (2009). Destination brand positions of a competitive set of near-home destinations. Tourism Management, 30(6) , 857-866.

Pike, S. (2002). Destination Image Analysis. A review of 142 papers from 1973-2000. Tourism Management 23(5) , 541-549.

Pike, S. (2000). The use of importance-performance analysis to identify determinant short break destination attributes in New Zealand. Pacific Tourism Review. 6(2) , 23-33.

Pike, S. (2005 ). Tourism destination branding complexity. Journal of Product & Brand Management. 14(4) , 258-9.

Popesku, J. (2011). Management of Tourism Destinations. Belgrade: Singidunum University.

Ritchie, J. B., & Crouch, G. I. (2010). A Model of Destination Competitiveness/Sustainability: Brazilian Perspectives. Revista de Administracao Publica.

Schröter, T. Y., & Schwekendiek, D. (2015). Understanding South Korea's Poor Nation Brand Image: A Content Analysis of Two Leading German Print News Media, 1948-2013.

SPI. (2015). Social Progress Index 2015. Washington: Social Progress Imperative.

SSF. (2014). Sustainable Society Index. Retrieved from Sustainable Society Foundation: http://www.ssfindex.com/about-ssf/

Transparency. (2015). Corruption Perception Index 2015. Retrieved 2015, from Transparency International: http://www.transparency.org/cpi2015

Travel Image. (2015). Travel Image 2015. Stockholm: Related.

UNWTO. (2014). Annual Report 2014. Madrid: World Tourism Organization.

UNWTO. (2015). Annual Report 2015,. Madrid: World Tourism Organization.

Published
2017/08/30
Section
Original Scientific Paper