جستجوی مقالات مرتبط با کلیدواژه "رقابت پذیری مقصد" در نشریات گروه "جغرافیا"

 The competitive position of the destination brand is the provision of a framework by the destinations through which they can show their distinction from other destinations. Various aspects of tourism brands have been addressed in various studies, but the issue of competitive positioning of tourism brands has not been addressed. Competitive positioning of a brand not only creates a positive image in the audience's minds towards competitors but also turns relative advantages into competitive advantages, leading to development in various dimensions and identification. The purpose of this study was to present a model of the influential factors and consequences of the competitive position of the tourism brand in Gilān province. It was a mixed-methods study in which the systematic model of data-based theory has been used in its qualitative part. In terms of the data collection method, it is field research. The research population included professors of management and geography and managers of tourism in Gilān province. In the qualitative part, theoretical sampling was used as one of the types of purposeful sampling, and the number of samples due to theoretical saturation was 11 individuals. The results of semi-structured interviews to develop a model of the competitive position of the tourism brand of Gilān province by coding method showed that 321 open codes were identified and classified in 26 concepts based on Strauss and Corbin's (1998) approach in seven main categories, including competitive sources, the competitive position of Gilān brand, contextual factors, destination management, and positioning and destination branding operations, intervening factors and consequences. Also, to measure the model designed in the quantitative part, the opinions of 169 managers, master experts, and experts in the field of tourism in Gilān province were used. The results of this section also showed a good fit of the designed model with the obtained data. Other results showed that the key factor in positioning the destination brand in customers' minds is the operations related to positioning, branding, and advertising of that destination, and all other factors will be more noticeable with the correct implementation of this factorHighlightThe competitive positioning indices of the destination brand were identified using the foundation data theory.Factors affecting the competitive positioning of the destination brand and the relationship between them were identified.The role of destination brand competitive positioning on the environmental, social and economic consequences of the destination was analyzed. Extended Abstract  Introduction Tourism branding means to form a special image of a destination in the eyes of target audience, hoping this special image will help solve the problems of tourism and lead to attract investment. Accordingly, the goal of branding a place is much more than marketing and advertising for destination, it aims to make the given destination competitive (Wei et al., 2020, p. 2). In order to make the brand of tourism destinations competitive, it is necessary to use various tools and strategies, one of which is the concept of brand positioning. Brand positioning is a set of brand activities that leads to gain a specific position in the minds of target market audience for that brand (Donnelly et al, 2020, p. 7). Kotler et al. (2018) in the book entitled as ‘fourth generation marketing’ emphasize effective brand positioning needs brand identity in its various layers (including roots, essence and outer shell) and brand codes. Positioning tool should also be changed accordingly and redefined from customer’s point of view. This is where 4P, i.e. product, price, place, promotion, change into 4C, i.e. customer value, convenience, cost, and communication. Positioning in fourth age marketing does not consider the customer as a goal but as the main ruler who must solve his/her problem (Kotler et al., 2018). In this regard, since the limited study in the field of brand competitive position to investigate the role and importance of tourism brand and determining its position, this study aims to address the causes and consequences of tourism brand competitive position in Guilan through a paradigm approach. By accurate identification of each individual component affecting the brand competitive positioning, tourism brand modeling will help not only to identify the relationship and role of each component, but also to explain its consequences. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to design and explain a model for tourism brand position in Guilan.MethodologyThe method used in this study is a mixed one (qualitative and quantitative). In qualitative part, it uses ‘grounded theory’ strategy. The instrument used for data collection in qualitative part, was a semi-structured interview with pre-designed questions. Theoretical sampling method was used to select the sample for interview, so that 11 subjects including university professors, officials and policy makers in Guilan tourism field were the sample members of this part of the study. Qualitative data analysis in the present study is based on the systematic approach of Strauss and Corbin (1998). According to Strauss and Corbin, qualitative data analysis for theorization requires the use of open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. In this study, coding operations were performed after interviewing and writing them, through MAXQDA. In quantitative data analysis, after performing confirmatory factor analysis test in LISREL 8.8 to measure the validity of the data obtained from the questionnaire, designed model was tested using structural equation modeling of partial least squares method in Smart PLS3.Results and discussion The results of data analysis obtained from semi-structured interviews by coding method showed that 321 open codes were identified and categorized into 26 concepts and 7 categories including competitive resources, Guilan brand competitive position, contextual factors, destination management and its positioning and branding operations, intervening factors and consequences. The study of relationship between categories revealed that destination management, competitive resources, contextual factors and positioning and branding operations plays an effective role in Guilan brand competitive position, which in turn will bring about economic, social and environmental consequences.Conclusion Given to the results and in order to improve the competitive position of Guilan brand, it is suggested first to focus on branding and advertising issues. It can be consisted of three steps. To create a destination brand, first of all one should find the main characteristics and values ​​of destination and travelers’ perception from that given destination. Next, appropriate communication skills should be improved in order to increase brand awareness. After implementing destination branding, undertaking organizations should also monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of destination brand through investigation and measurement of communications effectiveness. Therefore, they can determine the success and failure factors of destination brand for proper compatibility.Funding There is no funding support.Authors’ Contribution Authors contributed equally to the conceptualization and writing of the article. All of the authors approved the content of the manuscript and agreed on all aspects of the workConflict of InterestAuthors declared no conflict of interest.Acknowledgments This manuscript is prepared based on PhD thesis of first author at Rasht Branch, Islamic Azad University, Rasht, Iran.

In recent years, the increasing number of wealthy Muslims has propelled halal industry (halal: permissible according to Islamic law) to provide a way of life including halal travel and halal hospitality services. Although Iran is an Islamic country and has all of conditions for halal tourism but its share is only 160 million dollars, equivalent to 3% of the world's halal tourism industry and in the ranking of top destinations of tourism halal in 2018 is in the 17th position. The rapid growth of the Halal Tourism Market and the competition of destinations to obtain a part of this market due to its potential economic, cultural, religious and political potential show the need to pay attention to Halal tourism and the competitive presence in this market. Since the starting point for genesis of strategies for improving the competitive position of a destination can be considered similar to the factors affecting competitiveness, this study aims to prioritize Iran's competitiveness factors in halal tourism based on a model from competition model of Dwyer and Kim. Data collection tool is a researcher-made questionnaire which completed to Internet way by 192 people from the supply side in the tourism industry, including experts and activists in the field of tourism in Tehran. These people selected by using judgment sampling. To analyze the data, T-test and Friedman used. The results of the analysis confirmed the seven hypotheses proposed of the study as Iran's competitiveness factors in halal tourism. Also, the priority of these factors respectively is "Situational factors of Iran in halal tourism", "Destination management in halal tourism", "Iranian-Islamic cultural/historical heritage", "demand condition for Iran's halal tourism", "supporting factors in halal tourism", "Muslim arbitrary natural heritage" and "created resources based on halal tourism". Halal tourism as a type of tourism for Muslim tourists in which people travel for pleasure and having fun through adherence to religious law, significantly increased in the past decade. Due to the potential economic, cultural, religious and political advantages of halal tourism and the availability of the necessary capacities for this type of tourism, it is expected that Iran will be pioneer in terms of attracting halal tourists rather than other countries. But according to the report of the Crescentrating Institute in 2018, Iran has ranked 15th among the 48 countries surveyed of the member of Organization of the Islamic Conference. It seems that the halal feature of tourism activities in Iran has not created any competitive factor. New destinations, especially in Asia, have realized the need to focus on this market and are competing to become Muslim friendly destinations. It's expected that halal tourism will attract non-Muslim tourists who are looking different cultural experiences as well as. Consequently, considering the appropriate conditions for halal tourism development in Iran and the goal of attracting 20 million tourists to Iran by 2025, the development of halal tourism in Iran can be a practical way for inviting the world people to visit the merciful Iran, as well as the solution of cultural growth, social development, compensation solutions of Shortage of the oil economy and the means of realizing a resilient economy. Consequently, due to the lack of research on Iran's competitive status in halal tourism, present study attempts to identify and prioritize Iran's competitiveness factors in halal tourism in order to increase Iran's competitive power as a halal tourism destination and Iran can benefit from potential capacities of halal tourism. The present study is an applied, quantitative and descriptive research with a survey strategy. Data analysis was performed through using SPSS statistical software in two sections, descriptive and inferential statistics. Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, t-test and Friedman test were used for inferential statistics.
  The data analysis results confirmed the seven proposed hypothesis of the research. Friedman's analysis of variance test showed that there is priority among the accepted factors. Based on the results, In order of priority, Iran's competitiveness factors in halal tourism are "Situational factors of Iran in halal tourism", "Destination management in halal tourism", "Iranian-Islamic cultural /historical heritage", "demand condition for Iran's halal tourism", "supporting factors in halal tourism", "Muslim arbitrary natural heritage" and "created resources based on halal tourism". The purpose of this study was to identify and prioritize Iran's competitiveness factors in halal tourism, derived from Dwyer and Kim Destination Competitiveness Model. The results showed that situational factors and destination management in halal tourism are more important than other factors and taking planned decisions will also provide context for the realization of other factors. In this regard, it is necessary to support the private sector and remove the rules and red tape in the light to create appropriate security and infrastructure by the government. Iranian cultural-historical resources ranked in high priority, third rank. In this regard, branding of halal food and the holding of halal food tours and festivals, as well as the emphasis on the features of Islamic and Iranian architecture and the existence of the holy shrine of Imam Reza (AS), have the potential to be used to increase the competitiveness of Iran in halal tourism. Putting the demand condition for halal tourism in the fourth priority indicates the necessity of matching the halal properties, the characteristics of the destination and the quality of services to increase the domestic demand for halal tourism and the satisfaction of foreign tourists. Supporting resources in halal tourism ranked fifth priority. Thus, it's imperative that officials consider improving the political and economic relations of Iran with countries of origin halal tourism, including improving the conditions for granting visas. Also, due to unfriendly encounters with Muslim tourists in recent years, it is imperative that hospitality be introduced as an intangible element of tourism product and a prominent feature of the Iranian people to the world and shape a proper image of Islamic Iran in the minds of people around the world. Putting the natural heritage and created resources in the last priority showed ignoring the more important factors will not allow the full use of the competitive ability of these two factors.

Worldwide studies show that health is a vital stimulus that encourages older people to participate in tourism (Horneman et al., 2002), and the type of tourism that is encouraged and promoted by health is health tourism. Therefore, the services needed for health tourism are important. Today, health tourism is spreading in a variety of sites, including hot springs, mineral water springs, seas and areas with suitable climate (Pollock et al., 2000), and many countries are competing in this regard.
Health tourism is a comprehensive journey focused on developing, maintaining and improving the body, mind and soul (Smith&Kelly, 2006). This type of trip is usually attractive for people over 50 who are economically rich and looking at health tourism as a lifestyle and also have experienced work stress (Smith & Puczko, 2009). Therefore, these activities are intended for the comfort of "people over the age of 50", "older people" and "elderly tourists". (Chen et al., 2013).
Therefore, considering the significant global growth of tourism in the hot springs and the natural resources inside the country, it is necessary to make further efforts to achieve a suitable regional and global position in various health tourism branches such as hydrotherapy. Iran has over 1000 mineral springs and Mazandaran province with 40 hot and mineral springs has most resources after West Azerbaijan province. One of the influential and active hubs of the province in this regard is Ramsar.

Competitiveness is one of the most important issues in the economy of countries. In the field of tourism, the increase in competitive ability can lead to an increase in the growth of this sector and, consequently, on national welfare by maintaining and increasing market share. The purpose of this study was to analyze the factors influencing the growth of tourism sector with an emphasis on destination competitiveness for 63 selected countries during the period 2016-2007. The method was based on dynamic panel data and system generalized method of moment (GMM-Sys) estimator. The results indicated that destination competitiveness has a positive effect on the growth of the real value added of the tourism sector. Of course, its type and size vary from country to country. Thus, in the differentiation of countries based on features such as fuel exports, income levels; being in the top ten countries in terms of the number of tourists and the amount of expenditure in the tourism sector; and the level of development, there is a significant difference in the sign and size of the impact of destination competitiveness on tourism growth. Also, the growth of the tourism sector is positively related to the share of tourism in GDP, population and real exchange rate.
Today, the tourism industry is considered as one of the most important industries in the world and its increasing importance has led to the recognition of not only as an industry but also as a productive industry, with many potential in growth, development and positive economic effects. Accordingly, attention to the growth of the tourism sector and the factors that improve it are important. Competition is one of the issues that can affect this industry. The competitive environment created in the international tourism industry has revealed the need for attention to the competitive ability of tourism destinations. The competitiveness of a destination is attributed to its ability to compete effectively and profitable in the tourism market and refers to the amount of attraction of tourists in order to increase the prosperity of the destination. In other words, destination competitiveness is an economic concept that influences the sustainable development of the tourism industry. Regarding the importance of tourism and the growing competition between the countries of destination, the present study first seeks to answer the question of what factors affect the growth of the tourism sector in a select group of countries that are composed of different groups? Among the various factors, the main focus is on the destination competitiveness. On the other hand, different groups of the countries, due to their specific characteristics, can be different in type and size of the impact of destination competitiveness on tourism growth; and have a different role in attracting tourists. Therefore, the other goal of the present research is to answer the second question, which is essentially whether differences between different groups of countries have a significant difference in the type and size of the impact of destination competitiveness? In other words, if the differences such as the degree of development, the level of income, export of fuel, and the ranking of countries in the top (among the ten first countries in terms of tourism or the number of tourists entering or expenditure (investment) for the tourism sector) creates a kind of relationship between destination competitiveness and the growth of the tourism sector?
In this study, according to previous studies and especially according to Webster and Ivanov (2014), the research model is as follows: (1) The relation (1) corresponds to the beta conditional convergence equation in which ΔLnTGDP as a dependent variable represents the change in the logarithm of the real value added of the tourism sector. Represents the logarithm of first lag in the real value added of the tourism sector. The TTCI represents the destination competitiveness. TTCI have been extracted from reports published by the World Economic Forum (WEF). Tour Share is the share of tourism in GDP. POP is population size and RExR is the real exchange rate.
Index of represents the time period of the research, covering the period from 2007 to 2016. also represents 63 countries, including China, Germany, Japan, the USA, France, India, Italy, Spain, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, Canada, Turkey, Thailand, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Philippines, Switzerland, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Argentina, Sweden, UAE, Malaysia, Netherlands, Greece, Portugal, Norway, New Zealand, Iran, Singapore, South Africa, Belgium, Chile, Denmark, Poland, Finland, Nigeria, Peru, Egypt, Pakistan, Morocco, Venezuela, Vietnam, Ireland, Colombia, Qatar, Czech Republic, Hungary, Botswana, Croatia, Dominican Republic, Albania, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Romania, Panama, Kazakhstan Jordan, Costa Rica, Kuwait and Kenya. In order to answer the questions in the introduction section, the relationship (1) as the main model of research was redefined in six scenarios.
The results indicate that the share of tourism in GDP, population and real exchange rate have a positive effect on the growth of the tourism sector. In addition, the effect of the destination competitiveness on the growth of the value added of the tourism sector is positive. Of course, the type and size of the effect of this variable is different in the groups of the country. The growth of tourism in the fuel exporting countries has a different impact (both in size and in terms of sign) of the target competitiveness indicator. In fuel exporting countries, unlike other countries, destination competitiveness has a negative impact on tourism growth. In the high income countries, the impact of destination competitiveness on the growth is positive, while in the middle income countries, the effect is negative. Also in the countries which are among the first ten countries, both in terms of the number of tourists and in terms of expenditures (for the tourism sector), the impact of destination competitiveness on the growth of tourism is different from the other countries. So that, in this group of countries, the destination competitiveness influences the growth of the tourism sector more intensively. The level of development has also been effective in terms of size and sign of influence. As in developed countries and economies in transition, destination competitiveness has led to a decline in the growth of the tourism sector, while in developing countries; this has been accompanied by an increase in the growth of the tourism.