Is Competitiveness a Challenge for an Economy? A Comparative Study for Sri Lankan Tourism Sector

Abstract

Tourism regarded as one of the fastest growing service industries for many economies and the main source of foreign income for appreciable number of developing nations. Further as vast human potential, national materials and multiple effects on areas of references, the sector acts as a stimulating factor for economic development. Tourism bonds people in leisure, that allows to inspire the nature, destinations, cultures, dreams they had and simply to inspire their own lives with traveling. The paper mainly focus on investigate the competitive position compared with the rival destinations, competitive advantage and specialization focus within the global tourism market and innovation driven strategies towards the national economy. Shift- Share Analysis applied and a novel Tourism competitiveness Index has proposed. Results indicate that Sri Lanka is in a mid-point as compared with regional Tourism leaders. The importance of customization of the regional tourism markets has highlighted as policy formulations for Tourism Development.