The identification of management-process critical success factors that will achieve competitiveness and sustainable growth for South Africa as tourist destination

Existing destination competitiveness models do not clearly identify the strategic relationships between the critical factors and how they can be integrated for sustainable growth and competitive advantage. Against this background, this article focuses on the development and testing of a destination competitiveness model that can be used to identify and integrate critical success factors for a tourism destination. The destination competitiveness model that is presented makes provision for the identification and integration of critical success factors within four strategic perspectives, namely, sustainable growth, the customer, destination management processes, and learning and growth. To test the model, a survey was undertaken among the primary tourism stakeholders in South Africa involved in attracting and servicing international tourists. This survey was used to identify critical success factors in the destination management processes that could have the greatest impact on customer satisfaction and the achievement of sustainable growth objectives. Specific conclusions are made and key actions recommended on the basis of the results obtained.