Determinants for tourist destinations' international markets access: The case of Southern Ecuador and Germany

© 2018 Institute for Tourism. Many destinations aim at accessing international markets to generate income from abroad, stimulate innovation and develop new skills. This paper examines the determinants - conditions that may represent barriers or enhancers - for tourist destination's international markets access. We contrast various sets of determinants from: 1) tourism literature on internationalisation, 2) two extensive studies from the exports sector covering 48 years of data, and 3) empirical work on 30 cases at the destination and the source market, considering Cajas Massif's - Southern Ecuador - access to German organised groups. We found that tourism literature focuses on more specific conditions, such as distance or macroeconomic indicators; while exports' literature deals with a more complete range of conditions to explain determinants. We conclude that determinants such as collective initiatives, defined target markets or efficient processes play a priority role in tourist destinations; and that although exports' literature is useful, it is not totally transferable to tourism. Therefore, adding input from the empirical cases, we triangulate the data to consolidate a comprehensive overview of 46 determinants specific for tourist destinations' international market access. This work has implications for decision makers, firms, governments and educators.

Publication year:2018

Accessibility:Open