What is it about?
The main purpose of this article is to assess the competitiveness of Uruguayan rural tourism sector against its main competitors from Argentina and Brazil, as perceived by Uruguayan stakeholders on the supply side. The article will also evaluate the potential of Uruguay as a rural tourism destination in attracting German tourists. Two different questionnaires were administered, one to Uruguayan rural tourism stakeholders and another one to potential German tourists in Germany. 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.
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Why is it important?
There is very limited research done on the competitiveness of Uruguay as a rural tourist destination in attracting foreign tourists. The objective of this study is to partially fill this gap by assessing how competitive Uruguayan rural tourism is and evaluating if 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.
Perspectives
This study will assess the potential of Uruguay as a rural tourism destination in attracting German tourists. It is interesting to note that both nature-based tourism as well as adventure tourism has been steadily growing in Germany for the past few years. Demand for these forms of tourism is expected to remain high as people who work and live in cities seek natural experiences and look for unique and exotic destinations. Existing research indicates that many German tourists are willing to accept a limited tourism infrastructure to be able to enjoy a unique and authentic experience (Arlt, 2006). Authenticity in the tourism industry refers to the need of tourists from developed countries – such as Germany – looking for places where everything is real and original (Petroman et al., 2010). The authenticity of rural areas in exotic destinations has become increasingly popular (Boyd, 2002; Ciolac et al., 2011).
Dr Federico Topolansky Barbe
Royal Agricultural University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The competitiveness of the Uruguayan rural tourism sector and its potential to attract German tourists, Competitiveness Review An International Business Journal incorporating Journal of Global Competitiveness, March 2016, Emerald,
DOI: 10.1108/cr-06-2015-0050.
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