Tourism is an activity that connects social, economic, cultural, and technological factors, as well as many others that shape a complex market comprising a wide supply of all kinds of products and services that involve numerous resources, both tangible and intangible, and qualified human capital (Maráková, Dyr & Wolak-Tuzimek, 2016). Authors such as Chens, Sok & Sok (2008), Corzo (2013), and Brandão et al. (2020) posit that the importance of tourist activity and its socioeconomic impact at the national level are due to the direct correlation it possesses with other sectors and industries. Hence, strengthening its development may lead to improving the quality of life of a whole country.

The great benefit of tourism is that it promotes harnessing non-traditional resources such as geographical, cultural, social, technological, and environmental resources, this allows to boost economic development in poor countries, it being a business that demands a great number of human resources (Maráková et al., 2016; Ryan, Mottiar & Quinn, 2012). So, if tourism is competitive, it can quickly take the image of the nation and its territories into the radar of global travelers, encouraging foreign investment and technology development, reducing poverty, and increasing per capita income and quality of life (Kubickova & Li, 2017; Shahzad, Shahbaz, Ferrer & Kumar, 2017; Xue, Suocheng, Xianfeng & Guanghai, 2009).

Likewise, the tourism sector is essential to the world economy because it is a necessary means to foster development and economic growth, as found by Croes, Ridderstaat & Shapoval (2020), Jovanović, Janković, Milić & Krstić (2014), Wang & Liu (2020), and Webster & Ivanov (2019). The World Tourism Organization claims that 40% of the Gross Domestic Product GDP and 70% of income from service markets in developing countries are generated by tourism; this means that promoting tourism in regions such as Latin America, Africa or Southeast Asia may be the strategy for competitive development that allows these nations to generate sustainable wealth (World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), 2018). Mihalic & Aramberri (2015), Nazmfar, Eshghei, Alavi & Pourmoradian (2019), and the World Travel and Tourism Council cited by Isa et al. (2019) show that tourism is the economic sector of fastest development in the past years, and the greatest employment generator at a global level (Dogru et al., 2020; Kolosinska, Petrashchak, Kolosinskyi, & Katana, 2018; Rodríguez-Díaz & Pulido-Fernández, 2021).

On the other hand, the factors that make a tourist destination attractive are not only derived from the geographical features of the site, but also from the elements of the value chain itself, in terms of infrastructure, cost/benefit relation, environment, and sociocultural interactions that represent memorable experiences for the tourist (Azzopardi & Nash, 2017; Goffi, Cucculelli, & Masiero, 2019; Leung & Baloglu, 2013; Mihalic, 2000; Peng & Yuan, 2019). So, offering competitive tourist services depends on a value chain where hundreds of companies operate, with productive systems capable of adapting to the needs of visitors, it has been found that the success of a destination’s strategic positioning in the tourist market is determined by a set of decisions that represent a source of competitive advantage over other destinations (Montanari, Engracia Giraldi, & Gabrielli Barreto, 2013; Romão, 2020).

According to the Sustainable Development Goals SDGs and the Millennium Development Goals MDGs, the importance of the tourism sector in the field of International Cooperation for Development CID is its influence on the living conditions of communities anywhere, the ability to generate employment, and promote the interrelation between multiple sectors (UNWTO, 2018). Whereby 2017 was declared the Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development worldwide. From this moment on, the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has channeled efforts in sustainable tourism development to contribute to the fulfillment of the SDGs. Around sustainable economic growth, social inclusion, employment and poverty reduction, efficient use of resources, environmental protection, and the fight against climate change, cultural values, diversity and heritage, peace, and security (UNWTO, 2018).

Therefore, the contribution of tourism activity to the countries based on the Sustainable Development objectives is reflected in different aspects such as promoting development and socioeconomic growth from a small scale, promoting local agricultural production, integrating into the value chain of the destination, improving health and well-being, promote education and training for the population, such as access to drinking water in more places of the destination, among others. Subsequently, the SDGs are relevant not only for the tourism sector but for any other sector since it provides the basis for companies to make efficient use of renewable energies, and promote job creation and income generation, therefore it is also important to indicate that the tourist growth of a destination implies that sustainable infrastructures must be built, therefore, tourism entails multilateral cooperation to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (Puig Cabrera & Foronda Robles, 2017; UNWTO, 2018).

Finally, to promote the local and national development of the countries, the UNWTO has proposed different strategies during the commemoration of World Tourism Day in 2020, this time the motto Tourism and Rural Development was selected. The proposed strategies are focused on making the cultural heritage and traditions of rural communities known to highlight the fundamental role that tourist activities have in activating the local economy. Several countries participated in this commemoration, this demonstrates the spirit of international solidarity, which runs through tourism and which the UNWTO has recognized as essential for the recovery after the global crisis caused by Covid-19 because these actions will allow this sector a favorable recovery in the third quarter of 2020 and for the year 2021 a resumption of the tourism sector worldwide (Navarro, Ortega & Torres, 2020; Vega Falcón, Castro & Romero, 2020).

In the case of Colombia, tourism is currently having a significant impact on the country’s economic growth and development. It is related to an increase in income from foreign investment, public revenue, job generation, and business opportunities (García-Méndez, Gutierrez & Garavito-Hernandez, 2022). Therefore, it is considered one of the Latin American countries with the most dynamic tourism development in the past few years, because of the peace agreement between the government and guerrilla groups (MINCIT, 2018).

According to data from the MINCIT (2018), between 2011 and 2017, Colombia presented remarkable growth in the main tourism indicators in the country: international tourist arrivals increased by 69%, foreign currency spending grew by 52%, job generation increased by 19%, and 74% more companies joined the sector, creating tourism supply in 281 towns in the national territory (MINCIT, 2018, p. 4). In addition, the National Department of Statistics revealed that hotel and restaurant occupancy accounted for 3.78% of Colombia’s GDP in 2017, asserting the relevance of tourism to the country’s economic growth.

As identified by the Tourist Information Center of Colombia (CITUR, 2020), tourism in Colombia during 2017 grew by 28.3% based on the previous year, largely due to the feeling of greater security that arose as a result of the conditions generated by the signing of the peace agreement, making it the second agent of foreign exchange for the country after oil exports and the third-largest generator of employment by employing 1 out of every 11 people (Anzola, Pérez, Riveros & Sánchez, 2014). Compared, data from the UNWTO (2018) and World Travel and Tourism Council (Dichter & Guevara, 2017) affirm that between 2005 and 2016 at the global level the sector grew annually at an average close to 3.9%, while for Colombia in the same period it was 12.2%. Data that demonstrate the great potential that the country has in this sector and why great efforts should be made to make national tourism a world-class productive and competitive activity that fosters strategic alliances for the creation of innovative business clusters with technological development.

In 2019, the tourist arrivals in Colombia were exceedingly high. 4.515.932 non-resident visitors arrived in the country, growing 2.7% to 2018, and the hotel occupancy represented 57.8% of nominal income in travel agencies, with a 3.7% growth. Reports from MINCIT (2022) show that, despite the Covid-19 crisis, nearly 1.383.868 non-resident visitors arrived in the country between January and December, including 791.673 non-Venezuelan foreigners, being the United States the country with the most visitors representing 25.5% and Bogota received the highest number of non-resident tourists followed by Cartagena, Medellin, and Cali. Regarding internal tourism, according to the Survey of Internal Tourism Expenditure, in the third quarter of 2019 Colombia received 3,344,000 tourists in main cities, representing a 12.1% growth from 2018. This generated a USD 6.8 billion income from air travel, which is 1.9% higher than the year before (National Bank: Balance of Payments). In quarter three of 2020, the number of people who traveled internally fell to 2019, Survey of Internal Tourism Expenditure shows that 15.6% of the Colombian population did some tourist or excursion activity in 2019 while only 2.6% did so in 2020.

Without considering the effects generated by the global phenomenon of the Covid-19 pandemic, the givens presented by the MINCIT (2022) to the first quarter of 2020 show that in Colombia tourism represents for the national economy a highly positive performance, insofar as the 2019 GDP Gross Domestic Product grew by 4% compared to the same ruble of the previous year, which means a 2% more contribution to the national added value. In terms of foreign currency to the country during 2019, more than USD 4,864 million was entered as money contributed by travelers who arrived in Colombia between January and September, which represents 2.1% more than in 2018 and an approximate generation of 2 million new direct and indirect jobs that represent 3.7% more jobs than in 2017 and about 8.8% of the total jobs in the entire national territory (MINCIT, 2022). These values show that tourism in Colombia is increasingly important in the national context, which is demonstrated by the increase in the level of tourism competitiveness established by the World Economic Forum (Uppink & Soshkin, 2019) by increasing 13 places from position 68 in 2015 to 55 in 2019 among a total of 140 countries analyzed.

It should be noted that the non-resident foreign tourists who visit the country the most are, in their order, the United States of America 22%, México 7%, Peru 6,3%, Argentina 6%, Chile 5,5% and Brazil 5%, representing a total of 3.9 million travelers through international flights (January to October 2019) which means 4.5% more air passengers than in 2018 with the highest hotel occupancy in the last 15 years with 57.9%, being Bogotá DC with 42% the city that receives the most foreign tourists followed by Cartagena 16%, Medellin 14% and Ipiales 5.3% (Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, 2021). In the consolidated year 2020 and as shown in Figure 1, the United States of America was the country that contributed the highest number of non-resident international tourists to tourism in Colombia with an estimated total of 230,000 visitors, followed by Venezuela with 112,000, Mexico with 52,000, Peru 48,100, Argentina 44,700, Chile 43,600 and Brazil 39,300, highlighting that Spain with 29,600 travelers is the first European country that brings tourists during this period (Statista, 2022).

Figure 1

Finally, the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE) (2020) and Statista (2022) show a forecast of the estimated absolute economic contribution of tourism in Colombia of 19,435 million U.S. dollars by 2025, elements that are going to be strengthened by the new Financing Law that raises great benefits, especially of a tax nature with a preferential rate of 9% for income tax for 10 to 20 years, an aspect that is expected to attract greater investments that develop the sector at levels never before seen in the country in hotel centers, theme parks, ecotourism, nautical piers, and agro-tourism, among others (Santoro, 2019). Attracting foreign direct investment is the fundamental task in this regard, which is why the country wants to be seen as an attractive, sustainable, safe, and profitable destination to do business of great magnitude, a situation that complements the figures of the last decade in which Colombia received attracted more than 500 investors in projects associated with about 200 new hotels that offer more than 20,000 rooms, which in 2019 meant contributions to the nation worth US $ 11,159 million US dollars for foreign investment (Banco de la República, 2020).

A reflection of the above is the fact that large hotel chains as well-known as Hilton, Grand Hyatt, JW Marriott, Four Seasons, Intercontinental Hotels Group, Accor, and NH among many others, have investments and an active presence in Colombia through the franchise model and Capital funds with local and foreign investors, which in turn promotes the development of other sectors such as construction with first-rate urban and architectural projects with tourist facilities that meet international standards. All this allows international investor groups to expand their commercial horizons not only to other cities in Colombia but also to promote new operations with allies throughout the Latin American environment, generating hundreds of new jobs and a greater positioning of the country as a tourist destination in themes of fun, business, health, culture among others (MINCIT, 2022).

The competitiveness of a country is determined by the level of productivity that each economic sector achieves, which is why it is interpreted as an indicator of sustainable development through the selling of goods and services with added value. This definition is rather fitting for tourism, where being competitive means being able to sell products and services that satisfy the needs and expectations of the local and international traveler, in a sector where the supply of destinations grows constantly with a larger quality/price ratio and more innovative elements (Müller, 1995).

Buitrago, Rodríguez & Serna (2019), Cabrera-Martínez, López-López & Ramirez (2011), and Garavito & Rueda (2021) posit that the focus should be on creating strategies that develop sustainable competitive advantages in a market with a strong commercial rivalry and demanding customers. Supply chains should be connected with efficient production systems that generate market synergy through research and innovation. This implies the ability to incorporate changes according to the needs and expectations of customers, so associative management models can help create more added value throughout the production chain, allowing to create a truly competitive, multidimensional tourism industry (Goffi et al., 2019; Knežević, Dwyer, Koman, & Mihalič, 2016; Salinas, Serdeira, Martín, & Rodríguez, 2020; Wang & Liu, 2020).

Tourism competitiveness must be achieved by firstly establishing political measures that promote the sector’s development so that adequate business models for the local business environment and market demand can be implemented (Das & Dirienzo, 2012; Rodríguez-Díaz & Pulido-Fernández, 2021). For Brent & Crouch (2003), tourism competitiveness possesses 36 elements that dynamize its development, which can be grouped into five categories: supporting and resource factors, basic-attracting factors, destination management, destination policy, and qualification determinants. So Kozak, Kim & Chon (2017) suggest that competitiveness be validated with another similar destination from a different country. Dupeyras & MacCallum (2013) propose that a country's tourism competitiveness must be evaluated based on the contribution to GDP, income per visitor, employment generation, foreign currency spending, and the tourist's satisfaction level. Regarding the tourist's satisfaction level, Fuchs & Weiermair (2004) identify three determining factors, which are the market conditions, performance to the customer’s needs, and the excitement or extreme complacency with the aspects that make the destination attractive.

Reisinger, Michael, & Hayes (2019) found that the competitiveness of a tourist destination depends on three kinds of resources: inherited and capitalizable resources (location, environment, culture, people, etc.), created and manageable resources (occurrences, special events, business, architecture, etc.) and external and adaptable resources (politics, economy, technology, etc.). Similarly, Dwyer, Mellor, Livaic, Edwards & Kim (2004) developed a competitiveness model for any tourist destination, comprising 84 indicators and 7 main determinants: given resources, created resources, supporting factors, situation conditions, demand factors, and performance factors. Kubickova & Lee (2018) define competitiveness in terms of four components given by the capacity of sustainable resources, memorable experiences for tourists, management performance, and quality of life in the surroundings.

Melián-González & García-Falcón (2003) built a competitiveness assessment model divided into two groups supported by natural resources and cultural resources, which is applied in tourism in Spain. Gooroochurn & Sugiyarto (2005) made a model that evaluates the competitiveness of tourist destinations with several units of analysis such as prices, economic openness, technology development, infrastructure, human development, community social development, environment, and human capital. Montanari et al. (2013) propose that the competitive position of a tourist destination should be aligned with the principles of sustainable development as an added value commitment to preserving the environment, as part of the public and private interests, so that Budeanu (2005) and Peng & Yuan (2019) suggest that it is not possible to achieve tourism competitiveness without sustainability practices that demonstrate conditions of the quality of life of the local community and the tourist attractions of the place.

Destinations with the highest levels of tourism competitiveness are located in countries with higher economic development (Kubickova & Li, 2017; Mustafa et al., 2020). Therefore, proposing adequate management of this in developing countries such as Colombia would be a great strategy to increase development and quality of life, in turn contributing to generating wealth and social wellbeing (Azzopardi & Nash, 2017; Leung & Baloglu, 2013; Navickas & Malakauskaite, 2009).

A descriptive analysis and principal components analysis was performed to process the data. The latter is a multivariable technique that reduces the data to an appropriate level of relevance to identify significant variables that allow for a better interpretation. It should be noted that the data obtained through principal components analysis were treated and validated statistically by applying a normality test, a Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test, and Bartlett’s sphericity test. A total of eight variables were included in the study, which was codified for interpretation in Table 2.

Table 2

Name of the variable	Code
Cultural	CUL
Environmental	AMB
Destination management	GES
Economic	ECO
Business	EMP
Marketing strategy	EST
Social	SOC
Infrastructure	INF

Source: Cotelco & Unicafam (2019).

Descriptive statistics for this study focus on the inherent dimensions of the elements that constitute the Colombian Regional Tourism Competitiveness Index 2019 (Cotelco & Unicafam, 2019), which provide a high-level perspective of each variable. The first analysis reveals that cultural (CUL) elements show great capacity for supplying tourist services, with a tendency to increase in most geographical areas. The best results are related to the inventory of cultural patrimony (CUL1), supply of cultural tourism products (CUL8), and technical design of cultural products (CUL14). Figure 2 shows great weaknesses in consolidating attractions declared world heritage sites.

Figure 2

Items relating to the environmental (AMB) variable show a favorable position to risk management in the territory, which reflects an intention to perform activities for identifying, reducing, or eliminating adverse effects deriving from tourist activity in the territory. Figure 3 shows that the main variables were: technical support for the supply of natural products (AMB15), risk management (AMB20), and protected areas with an environmental management plan (AMB21).

Figure 3

Results for the destination management variable (GES). Figure 4 shows that the most relevant elements were: tourism development plans (GES4), tourism as proposed in development plans (GES5), offices specialized in tourism management (GES19), and management of crimes against tourists (GES45). It is therefore recognized that a strong potential exists in regions that include tourism in their development plans.

Figure 4

Figure 5 shows results for the economic (ECO) variable, where the highest scores were obtained for the following factors: an added value for tourism (ESO14), occupancy of air transport for passengers (ECO18), and the number of travelers arriving in the department by bus terminals (ECO20).

Figure 5

Dimensions from the business (EMP) variable in Figure 6 reveal a clear tendency towards sustainable sites. The most relevant elements were: national hotel chains (EMP13) and quality certified tourist services (EMP32). Limitations were found regarding the capacity of available rooms in hotels, which affects competitiveness, though this could be solved by bringing international hotel chains that add value to the destination.

Figure 6

Analysis of the marketing strategy (EST) variable (Figure 7) suggests that companies located in geographical areas included in the study currently perform specific digital marketing practices, highlighting the elements: technical support for tourist product design (EST1), availability of tourist packages in online travel agencies (EST6) and promotion in online media (EST14).

Figure 7

Results from the social variable (SOC) in Figure 8 identify direct employment in tourism (SOC6), bilingual education in secondary school tourism programs (SOC23), and bilingual education in professional tourism programs (SOC24) as the main items.

Figure 8

Lastly, the infrastructure variable (INF) in Figure 9 shows that there is high coverage of public services, such as electric power and gas, in the tourist areas included in the study. Broadband internet speed (INF3), sewage systems coverage (INF12), electric power coverage (INF14), and gas coverage (INF30) were found to be the main factors contributing to the tourists’ having a good experience.

Figure 9

In synthesis, it can be observed that the geographical areas included in the study have low competitiveness scores when compared to international standards. Only the cultural, marketing strategy and infrastructure factors perform well, while great barriers are found in the business and social factors. The territories with the best scores were Bogota, Risaralda, Valle del Cauca, Antioquia, Quindio and Santander. The ones with the lowest scores were Cordoba, Cesar, Norte de Santander, Casanare, Nariño and Meta (Figure 10).

Figure 10

A principal components analysis was conducted to reduce the complexity of the study, as this is a method that describes the whole behavior of the data in terms of a few factors (Quindemil & Rumbaut, 2019). The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test had a result of 0.6, while Bartlett’s sphericity test resulted in 0.0 (Dziuban & Shirkey, 1974), which validates the adequacy of the factorial analysis and the variance, which is approximately 73% (Table 4).

Table 4

Total variance explained
Component	Initial eigenvalues			Sum of squares at the extraction			Sum of squares at rotation
	Total	% variance	% cumulative	Total	% variance	% cumulative	Total	% variance	% cumulative
1	4,4	55,2	55,2	4,4	55,2	55,2	3,3	41,3	41,3
2	1,4	17,5	72,7	1,4	17,5	72,7	2,5	31,4	72,7
3	0,8	10,3	82,9
4	0,5	6,2	89,1
5	0,4	4,4	93,5
6	0,3	3,7	97,2
7	0,2	2,1	99,3
8	0,1	0,7	100,0

Source: Own elaboration.

Results from the principal components analysis clearly show two components, which are associated with economic and environmental factors (Table 5).

Table 5

	Component
	1	2
ECO	0,908	0,012
EMP	0,862	0,084
INF	0,805	0,285
CUL	0,667	0,493
AMB	-0,022	0,878
EST	0,539	0,725
GES	0,121	0,711
SOC	0,579	0,614

Source: Own elaboration.

The first component is composed of the cultural, infrastructure, business, and economic variables, the latter being the most representative. These results are in line with the relevance for the sector found in many regions in the study, which suggests that the economic element has the potential to greatly impact the competitiveness of companies, the development of territories, and the cultural flux, both at the national and international level. On the other hand, the second component involves the social, destination management, marketing strategy, and environmental variables. The latter is the most important one, influencing the sustainability of territories that offer tourist services.