Destination competitiveness: evidence from Bali

Abstract

Within the dynamic global tourism industry, understanding the reasons for a destination's competitiveness is essential in order to enhance its performance, facilitate more effective destination management, and inform its overall sustainable economic development. This paper applies Kim and Wicks’ (2010, July 30. Rethinking tourism cluster development models for global competitiveness, international chrie conference-refereed track, University of Massachusetts) tourism cluster development model to Bali – a small, mature destination in the developing economy of Indonesia. It demonstrates that there are complex relationships between: (i) cluster actors; (ii) barriers preventing effective networking; and (iii) the significance of these interactions for the local host community. This paper contributes to the debate by addressing new and different attributes and actors such as transnational corporations, universities, and the concept of co-opetition, as being significant attributes in Kim and Wicks’ initial model. Through a qualitative approach involving N = 23 semi-structured interviews, this paper illustrates intricate issues and relationships that are identified in Bali, a small mature destination. Purposive sampling methods were employed to generate a range of key stakeholders who informed our understanding of ‘cluster actors’ in Kim and Wicks’ terms. The systematic examination of these key tourism elements provides a detailed analysis of the destination's strengths and weaknesses, and a more nuanced understanding of what facilitates a destination's competitive position.

Keywords:

• destination competitiveness
• cluster theory
• impacts
• island tourism
• Indonesia

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Martin Meyer and Paul Phillips for their constructive comments on earlier versions of the paper. We are also grateful to the interview respondents in Bali who gave their time freely. The usual disclaimers apply.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Wei Lee Chin http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9297-283X

Mark P. Hampton http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1481-4665

Notes

1. The term ‘locals’ refers to Balinese people and excludes Indonesians living there originally from other parts of Indonesia.