Analysis and comparison of tourism competitiveness in Spanish coastal areas

espanolEspana esta situada entre los cuatro lideres mundiales en turismo costero. Para mantener esta posicion en un mercado altamente competitivo, las instituciones publicas con competencia en las zonas costeras necesitan monitorear constantemente los componentes ambientales, economicos y sociales del turismo de "sol y playa". Por lo tanto, el principal objetivo de este estudio es evaluar la competitividad de los destinos costeros espanoles mas visitados. Para ello se aplicaran tecnicas de indicadores utilizando, principalmente, parametros socio-economicos y fisico-geograficos. De una forma global los primeros resultados muestran que los destino mas competitivos, aplicando estas tecnicas, son, en este orden jerarquico, Islas Canarias, Cataluna, Baleares, Valencia, Andalucia y Murcia. EnglishSpain is one of the four world leaders in coastal tourism. To keep the top position in such a highly competitive market, coastal managers in Spain need to constantly monitor the social, ecological, and economic components of ‘sun and sea’ tourism. Thus, the main goals of the present study are to analyse the most visited Spanish coastal destinations and to evaluate their competitiveness relative to each other. Indicator analysis was applied to evaluate seaside destinations pursuant to socio-economic and physicogeographical parameters. Results show that the most competitive destination is the Canary Islands, followed by Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, Valencia, Andalusia and Murcia.