The competitiveness of the Uruguayan rural tourism sector and its potential to attract German tourists

Yahiaoui ,Hela Chebbi, Dorra, Topolansky Barbe, Federico, Gonzalez Triay, Magdalena and Häufele, Cornelia (2016) The competitiveness of the Uruguayan rural tourism sector and its potential to attract German tourists. Competitiveness Review, 26 (2). pp. 166-187. doi:10.1108/CR-06-2015-0050

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Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to assess the competitiveness of the Uruguayan rural tourism sector against its main competitors from Argentina and Brazil, as perceived by Uruguayan stakeholders on the supply side. The paper will also evaluate the potential of Uruguay as a rural tourism destination in attracting German tourists. Design/methodology/approach – Two different questionnaires were administered, one to Uruguayan rural tourism stakeholders and another one to potential German tourists in Germany. Findings – The findings indicate that the main strengths of Uruguayan rural tourism offer, compared to Argentina and Brazil, are the hospitality and friendliness of local people, the natural and cultural attractions and the country’s security and safety. Main weaknesses identified were the poor management of several destination components that are key to create a successful tourism destination and poor management of the “demand conditions” component of Dwyer and Kim’s (2003) integrated model. Originality/value – There is very limited research done on the competitiveness of Uruguay as a rural tourist destination in attracting foreign tourists (Mackinnon et al., 2009). The objective of this study is to partially fill this gap by assessing how competitive Uruguayan rural tourism is and evaluating whether Uruguay represents an attractive market for German tourists looking for agro tourism and farm holiday destinations. The German market was chosen because it is one of the top tourist-generating countries and one of the biggest spenders in international tourism (The World Tourism organization, 2010). Moreover, most tourists – from outside South America – selecting Uruguay as a tourist destination come from Germany, USA and Australia.

Item Type:	Article
Article Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Competitiveness; Dwyer and Kim’s (2003) framework; Rural tourism; Uruguay
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > G Geography (General) > G154.9 Travel and State. Tourism G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GV Recreation Leisure
Divisions:	Schools and Research Institutes > School of Business, Computing and Social Sciences
Research Priority Areas:	Applied Business & Technology
Depositing User:	Susan Turner
Date Deposited:	20 Sep 2016 13:52
Last Modified:	01 Aug 2023 11:27
URI:	https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/id/eprint/3818

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