Competition Policy In The European Tourism

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We understand that, in an increasingly globalized world, competitiveness is fundamental to maintain and eventually increase the development of nations as well as the well-being of their inhabitants. Therefore, the analysis of competitiveness is essential to take decisions for the achievement of the aforementioned objectives. We also understand that there are no competitive nations, but nations with competitive industries, sectors or firms, which are concentrated in relatively small geographic spaces. We also believe that the competitiveness of industries or sectors is based on the creation of business networks that interact and strengthen their relationships thanks to their proximity and physical, technical, economic and social complementarity within a favourable territorial and institutional framework (Castells, 1996, p.3). These networks in which the competitiveness of any productive activity of services is based, can be analyzed using the concept of grouping (cluster in Anglo-Saxon terms); concept that one may use as an instrument of analysis of the competitiveness of tourist areas.

From the periphery of this nuclear centre of tourism, a wide and varied set of activities are grouped into five complementary blocks called respectively: generic products for tourist consumption, basic inputs of tourism enterprises, mobility, marketing channels, and administrations and other Institutions. The integration of these five blocks of tourism activities with the central core is what we call tourism from the point of view of supply; and their interrelation is what favours the appearance of the competitive advantages of the companies that operate in the tourism, especially when the central nucleus and the peripheral blocks coincide in the space to be located next to each other. (Casagrandi, Rinaldi, 2002, p.96)

On the concept of tourist area.

We understand by tourist area a territory, usually of a supra-municipal character, characterized by a great concentration of tourist activities (or in which tourism is the preferential economic activity), where various tourism products are offered, although one particular type of product predominates, which integrates different tourist destinations and which manifests itself as a conglomeration of three types of companies groupings or tourist entities: a) of a business nature; b) of territorial character and c) institutional. (Pearce, 2005, pp.226-237)

The tourist areas have arisen by an expansive evolution of one or several tourist destinations nearby, or of one or several specific tourist products offered in a geographical environment, also, nearby and many times, also, by the effect of the creation of a brand that has facilitated the creation of an own image and its identification in the market. This evolution is also a consequence of the tendency to create networks between companies, which allows them to expand activities and locations, diversify motivations, reduce risks and, in short, gain competitiveness. To a certain extent the multiplicity of products, segments, motivations, etc., in tourism has been generated as a way to improve its competitiveness and to combat one of the fundamental problems that tourism has: seasonality. (Greiner, Feichtinger, Haunschmied, Kort, Hartl, 2001, pp.1120-1122)

Characteristics of tourist areas.

One may consider the existence of seven characteristics that serve to delimit the content of tourist area, as following (Beerli, 2004, pp.623-636):

A) Multi-product character: In the tourist zone there are hotels and accommodation, in general, of any kind and any category, variety of means and systems of transport, and diversity of tourist attractions.

B) Multi-segment character: In the tourist area, different tourist segments are served by the tourist activity: sun and beach, golf, congresses, religion, business, culture, gastronomy, sports, etc.

C) Multi-motivational character: In the same way that the tourist offer is multiple, the demand that receives the tourist zone can be motivated by multiple desires like rest, fun, business, health, training, social relations, spirituality, sports, etc.

D) Multipurpose nature: We understand that in a tourist area there are several "destinations", "stations" or tourist places with a differentiated identity.

E) Multi-purpose: A tourist area is prepared to meet the needs of all types of clients: families, adults, youth, children, seniors, companies, clubs, disabled, etc.

F) Multi-origin character: The demand that is taken care of in a tourist zone can have an interior origin – local, regional or national – or international, with diversity of countries of origin.

G) Multiclass character: In a tourist area, tourists and luxury tourists, as well as social tourism, can accommodate and care.

Therefore, important dimension of supply and demand, but also the seven characteristics mentioned above, are defining elements of what a tourist area is.

The competitiveness of the touristic area

Regarding the concept of touristic area, it seems quite clear that the combination of territorial, institutional and business groupings and their respective competitive advantages is what will give the joint or global competitiveness of the tourist area. (Shoemaker , 2007, p.5) Although the definitions of competitiveness are very varied, and more so the forms or methods of their measurement, I consider one can agree that tourism competitiveness is the ability of agents involved in the tourist activity of a country, a region or an area to achieve its objectives above the sector average, in a sustainable and sustained manner which can be achieved through the above-average financial returns in business areas, as well as social and environmental returns as a result of the actions of public bodies and institutions, as well as achieving maximum satisfaction for tourists. (Hazari, Nowak, Sahli, 2003, p.96) Because, ultimately, the competitiveness will be the best fulfillment of the expectations of all the agents involved in the tourist activity: companies, resident population, administration and tourists, in a sustainable territorial environment and that competitiveness consists of a set of basic elements or factors: external and internal to tourist areas. (Crouch, 2003, p.10) The former responds to the general conditions of operation, in the social, economic and cultural spheres of the country where the tourist area is located, as well as from the micro and macroeconomic perspectives. (Buhalis, 2000, pp.97-116) The second ones are those on which one can act from within the tourist areas. Leaving aside the external factors of competitiveness, on which the tourist area lacks the capacity to influence, the competitiveness of a tourist area, considering as such a network of corporate, institutional and territorial clusters or clusters is in the "reticularity" or mesh strength of interrelationships – within each of the three types of clusters, as well as between the three groups. The tighter the mesh, the more competitive the tourist area. Likewise, the tourist will feel "safer" and it will be more difficult for them to "escape" or "fall" from the mesh, thus facilitating customer loyalty.

On rivality between tourist areas: regional competitiveness

Another aspect of the issue is that which refers to competition between territories. Because the competitiveness of a tourist area is comparable to "regional competitiveness", the area corresponds to a less-than-national scope, where there is a "production homogeneity" or specialization, in this case based on tourism. (Lanza, Temple, Urga, 2003, pp. 315- 321) There was already seen the dynamic nature of competitiveness, which is why changes in the economic processes of transformation of the productive, integration and globalization bases, based on the great technological advances in transport, telecommunications and information have originated and continue to cause new and increasing possibilities of contacts and exchanges between regions. Hence competition has intensified (Batey and Friedrich, 2000, p.3).

What are the characteristics of regional competition?

Obviously, deepening on the one hand the substantive competence and regional adjective can induce to approach the analysis from different approaches. Because talking about competition leads us to ask questions such as: type of competition, type of competitors, competitive relations between competitors and results of competition, among others. Logically the type of competition we are talking about when examining the competitiveness between tourist areas is essentially economic, it is competition for the market. (Ritchie, 2003, p.87) However, one can not ignore another aspect of competition that, although clearly affecting the market, underlies the rivalry between tourist areas; is the competition about the quality of the tourist resources attraction, be it climate, beaches, snow, landscape, monuments, shows, museums, shopping centers, etc. One leaves aside the competition that within a tourist zone is created by the natural resources between its different alternatives of use, and between different actors, which is not a reason for analysis in this research, except in the incidence that could have that rivalry in the tourist "climate" of the area. In any case, the economic rivalry between tourist zones does not translate into attempts to physically end up with the adversary, as might be the case with business competition where the company that loses and stays out of the market disappears. (Buhalis, 2000, p.5)

Territories can not disappear, but their business groupings can be broken or undone because of different factors, among which rivalry and the competitiveness of other groupings in other areas is a not insignificant factor. If we approach the analysis of the type of competitors we are referring to the set of economic units that are located in the tourist zone, whether private or public companies, public administrations, households or combinations of these different subjects. And all of them can compete with those located in other tourist areas either horizontally or vertically; as do the tourist areas themselves. In this respect, it should be pointed out that the competitive rivalry between tourist areas is, in general, among those that offer any type of consumable tourist product in the same period of time, since, in some way, the season of the year in which tourism conditions highlight the characteristics of tourist demand. (Cooper et al., 2009, p.111)

For example, in summer tourism the areas of sun and beach can compete with each other or with the mountains, but not with those of snow. Both types of tourism product can compete with cultural tourism or big city. But in a special way, competitive areas offer similar tourist products and competition also occurs between different tourist destinations in the same area or between destinations in different zones. (Laws, Scott, 2015, pp.48-52) However the possibilities opened by modern means of transport allow you to ski in summer in the southern hemisphere – that is to say, all tourism products compete "technically" with each other; it is always clear that there is no economic restriction for the specific tourist. In this respect, anyone having the precise economic resources can consume the desired tourist product at any time of the year. Hence, if tourist products can compete all year round, the tourist areas also do. (Dwyer and Kim, 2003, pp.369-414) Globalization of markets therefore affects both supply and demand for tourism. However, for the large mass of tourists, for almost all tourism consumption, competitiveness is between tourism areas that offer similar tourist products. For even the relative cheapness experienced by the costs of transport makes it possible to compete with tourist areas far from tourist centres with neighbouring ones. (Hogarth and Michaud, 1991, p.98)

The type of competitive relationships that can be established is based essentially on two elements: price and quality. This holds true for microeconomic and entrepreneurial competition; But also other competitive macroeconomic relationships in which governments intervene actively through the broad range of measures available to them, from monetary to financial, fiscal, territorial, labor, etc. Finally, the result of that competition has a translation that is normally measured through the various tourist indicators of demand or supply, but which in the end materializes in terms of improving the well-being of the inhabitants or residents of the tourist areas, of the concerned region and through the corresponding macroeconomic indicators.

The competitiveness model for tourist destinations

The competitiveness model for tourist destinations was elaborated on the basis of resource theories and dynamic capacities since one way of investigating competitiveness is to understand it as an internal and heterogeneous factor (according to the theory of resources); and at the same time sensitive to the dynamic aspect of the market for its renewal and refinement (according to the theory of dynamic capacities) (Teece et al, 1997, p.45).

In this way, the sources of competitiveness can be defined as the capacity to transform the factors of production into saleable products in the market, the capacity to renew resources and competences for the creation of new products and markets, and the generation of a Continuous flow of innovations (Hogarth and Michaud, 1991, p.20). Thus, the generation, integration and development of new resources are essential in the competitiveness of tourist destinations.

Theories that emphasize the external environment are not adequate to explain the origins of firms' competitiveness, since they are based on premises that can not be verified in practice (Barney, 1991, p.24). Important role of internal business processes, economic bias and lack of underlying adequacy to assess competitiveness (Foss, 1997, p.5).

Resource theories and dynamic capabilities were elaborated in particular by looking at the context of organizations and their specific resources. However, some studies have already been adapted for other contexts. Schoemaker and Amit (1994, p.16), for example, adapted this approach considering the industrial sectors as a unit of analysis. Specifically for the context of tourist destinations already exist studies based on the resource theories. Melián-Gonzáles and García-Falcón (2003, p.38) used the resource theories to evaluate the competitive potential of fishing tourism in a sample of four destinations. Hitt et al. (2005, p.10) points out that this approach can be used in the municipalities and cities and their capacity to attract tourists due to their brand and the quality of local education.

There are two specific factors in relation to the sector that must be considered. On the one hand, and according to Bull (1991, p.28), it must be taken into account that the tourism sector is based on a series of resources. Tourist destinations, if the sector delimited in their respective territories are contemplated, can be defined as pools of resources; the same definition was used by Wernerfelt (1984, p.7) for companies. These resources are composed of others due to the fragmentation of the tourism sector and its multisectoral nature. Therefore, the field studies provide theoretical and empirical material on the adaptation of the units of analysis of the approaches used in the construction of the model of this work.

On the other hand, this leads to the following questioning, what are the resources in tourist destinations? For the theories of resources can be understood as the strengths or weaknesses of a company (Wernerfelt, 1984, p.48); or what allows a company to develop and implement strategies to increase its efficiency and effectiveness (Barney, 1991, p.21). Resources can be of various types such as organizational, physical and human (Barney, 1991, p.28) and of different natures, either tangible or intangible (Wernerfelt, 1984, p.53).

Thus, the model adopted in this research related to the fact that the tourist destinations, like the companies, are formed by diverse resources and capacities, specific to each destination (heterogeneous) and without perfect mobility. Competitiveness is intrinsic to fate in the same way that resources are to the context of firms (Penrose, 1959, p.11).

However, Foss (1997) and Teece et al. (1997) emphasize that the resource theories are incapable of explaining how new resources can be created, and for that reason they are considered static. For this reason, the competitiveness model for tourist destinations must incorporate innovative elements that allow a constant development of resources in its four components (human resources, organizational resources, physic resources, products and services). (Lemelin, Whyte, Johansen, Desbiolles, Wilson, Hemming, 2013, p.86) In this sense, dynamic capacities as integrators and those responsible for creating new resources are fundamental, since the continuing nature of changes in any economic sector requires understanding that competitiveness is not simply a combination of experience in the initial level of skills and physical capital (resources). In reality it is the sum of the capacities to manage changes and to innovate, necessary conditions for the development of the competitiveness (Bell and Pavitt, 1995, p.102). Specifically in the tourism sector, some studies have already demonstrated the importance of innovation for the development of tourist destinations (OECD, 2008).

Therefore, in this study the competitiveness was elaborated from an ex ante approach, that is, based on the internal factors developed by the tourist destinations. In order to avoid the limitation of the resource theories, the competitiveness of a destination is defined as the capacity of the destination to develop, develop and create new resources for the destination (measured in terms of the intensity of its dynamic capacities); which can generate attractions for the destination through new tourism products, improvements in its operations and infrastructure, increases in the quality of services provided, improvements in the business environment, and conditions for better economic performance. (Hair et al., 2008, p.15)

Stimulating the competitiveness of the tourism sector in Europe

Tourism is the third most important socio-economic activity in the EU and generates more than 5% of the GDP of the European Union. With around 1.8 million businesses, mainly SMEs, the sector accounts for approximately 5.2% of the total workforce (e.g. around 9.7 million jobs, with a significant proportion of young people). In addition, tourism is an activity which affects the cultural and natural heritage as well as contemporary traditions and cultures of the EU, reflecting in an exemplary way the need to reconcile economic growth and sustainable development, including the ethical dimension. Finally, tourism is also an important instrument to reinforce the image of Europe in the world, to project our values and to promote the European model. (Poria, 2001, pp.115-119)

The European Commission and the Member States, together with industry associations, have made considerable efforts to implement actions to strengthen European tourism and its competitiveness. Over the years, the European Union has been able to lay the foundations for a European tourism policy by emphasizing the factors determining its competitiveness and taking account of the imperatives of sustainable development. (Nugent, 2010, p.26) With the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, the importance of tourism in the EU has been officially recognized (art. 195 in Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.):

Promote the competitiveness of companies in this sector and create an enabling environment for their development;

Promote cooperation between Member States, in particular through the exchange of good practices;

Develop an integrated approach to tourism by ensuring that this sector is taken into account in its other policies.

Tourism sector is facing many challenges, but at the same time it has numerous opportunities, such as the diversity of landscapes and the extraordinary European cultural wealth, which means that the sector needs to adapt to the new circumstances: cooperation with emerging newcomer competitors, adaptation to new visitors, as well as overcoming the problem of seasonal distribution. In addition, although this sector is the key to growth and employment, its vulnerability has recently been shown to be severely affected by the economic crisis of 2008, for example. (Kotz, 2009, pp. 305-317). This difficult context for the tourism industry has highlighted a number of problems facing the sector.

Regarding this situation, the Commission has reacted with a view to promoting a coordinated approach to tourism-related initiatives and to defining a new framework for action to strengthen the sector's competitiveness and its ability to grow in a sustainable manner. The objective is to move towards a more active policy to contribute to the relaunch of the single market, favouring tourism and responding to social concerns, territorial cohesion and protection and enhancement of the natural and cultural environment. (Rolfes, 2010, p.451) It is also necessary to promote the capacity of the sector to respond to structural changes. In order to achieve the objectives set, the Commission considers that actions in favour of tourism can be grouped around four axes:

Stimulating the competitiveness of the tourism sector in Europe

Promote the development of sustainable, responsible and quality tourism

Consolidate the image and visibility of Europe as a set of sustainable and quality destinations

Maximizing the potential of EU financial policies and instruments for the development of tourism

Stimulating the competitiveness of the tourism sector in Europe

Improving competitiveness plays a key role in strengthening the sector with a view to dynamic and sustainable growth. For this, it is necessary to stimulate innovation and to reinforce the quality, through:

promoting the diversification of tourism supply across the EU, taking advantage of transnational synergies for better tourism promotion and visibility, including heritage in all its diversity: cultural heritage, contemporary cultural creation, protected natural sites, health tourism and wellness, educational tourism, wine tourism, historical, sports, religious, rural or industrial, among others. The Commission considers that the various initiatives in these areas would be successful if they benefited from European legitimacy to guarantee their transnational character. The actions planned in this area are:

To value the common heritage of Europe on the basis of the "European Heritage Label" and on other actions such as the European Heritage Days and the European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage.

Foster the integration of "natural" heritage strategies, which will also benefit from initiatives for the award of quality labels.

developing innovation in the tourism industry by promoting its use by public and private players, in particular by SMEs, through awareness-raising and appropriate use of national and European programs. It is also necessary to accelerate the integration of the tools and services of the information society in all tourism activities. The actions planned in this area are:

The Commission will launch a "ICT and Tourism" platform to facilitate the sector's adaptation to new technologies and increase its competitiveness.

In the preparation of its future Communication on electronic commerce in the internal market, the Commission will examine the possibilities of strengthening the integration of the tourism sector in this context.

improving professional skills, facilitating the adaptation of workers to new technologies and market expectations. The actions planned in this area are:

The Commission will endeavour to promote the possibilities of the various EU programs, such as Leonardo or the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Program, with its sub-programmes "Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs" and "Electronic Competences for Innovation ".

Encouraging the prolongation of the tourist season, facilitating a better use of existing tourist infrastructures and staff. The actions planned in this area are:

to facilitate a mechanism for voluntary tourist exchanges between Member States, allowing travel during the off-season.

to develop a voluntary online information exchange mechanism to better coordinate school holidays between Member States.

Consolidating the socio-economic knowledge base of tourism: by improving the collection of statistical information in the field of tourism at European level, by promoting cooperation at European level between Member States, destinations, industry representatives and public and Private. The actions planned in this area are:

In the framework of the annual communication entitled "Consumer Markets Scoreboard", the Commission will ensure market surveillance by measuring the satisfaction of European consumers in relation to the various tourist services.

On short term, the Commission will develop a pilot project to network research institutes, universities, public and private observatories, regional and national authorities and national tourist offices.

On medium term, on the basis of the results of the pilot project, the Commission will promote the implementation of a "Virtual Tourism Observatory" to support and coordinate the research activities of the various national research institutes and provide socio-economic data on tourism at European level.

Promote the development of sustainable, responsible and quality tourism

The competitiveness of tourism is related to sustainability, since the quality of tourism depends on its natural and cultural environment and its integration with the local community. (Spenceley, 2012, p.15) However, tourism companies' response to sustainability concerns has varied widely across Europe. In this context, the Commission, based on previous initiatives, will develop a system of indicators for the sustainable management of destinations with the aim of enhancing European tourist destinations adopting effective practices to promote the sustainability of tourism. (Tribe, Liburd, 2016, pp.44-61). The actions planned in this area are:

To develop a system of indicators for the sustainable management of destinations. From this, the Commission will elaborate a label to promote the tourist destinations.

To organize awareness campaigns for European tourists on the choice of destinations and modes of transport, their relations with the local population and the fight against the exploitation of children and women.

To develop a European "Quality Tourism" brand, based on existing experiences.

To facilitate the identification by the European tourist industry of the risks related to climate change, to avoid investments that generate losses.

To propose a sustainable and responsible tourism charter and set a European price for tourism companies.

To propose a strategy for sustainable coastal and maritime tourism.

To establish or strengthen cooperation between the European Union and the main emerging countries (China, Russia, India, Brazil) and the Mediterranean countries in order to promote models of sustainable and responsible tourism development and exchange of best practices.

Consolidating the image and visibility of Europe as a set of sustainable and quality destination

The image and perception of Europe as a set of tourist destinations are aspects closely related to the competitiveness of the sector (Seongseop et al., 2016). Thus, in view of the great competition with emerging countries, the promotion of Europe as a destination in world markets should be encouraged through joint initiatives with Member States and European industry (such as major tourist halls or large cultural or sporting events). It is essential to carry out actions to promote tourism demand for Europe towards third countries, through the portal visiteurope.com, administered by the European Commission of Tourism. It will also increase the interest of Europeans to travel within the continent.

The actions planned in this area are:

To create, in cooperation with States, a true "Europe brand", to complete national promotional efforts.

To promote the portal visiteurope.com in order to increase the attractiveness of Europe.

To encourage common promotion actions at major international events or major fairs and tourist halls.

To strengthen EU participation in international forums. (Kamlage and Nanz, 2017, pp. 65-82).

Maximizing the potential of policies and financial instruments for the development of tourism

Tourism policy has a cross-cutting nature. In view of this situation, the Commission intends to better integrate tourism into its different policies and ensure that good implementation of existing legislation enables the full competitiveness potential of this sector to be realized (benefiting from European services market, integrated maritime policy or the importance of rural development policy, among others). For the current period the Commission will continue to promote and mobilize Community support instruments and programs for the benefit of tourism. For the period after 2017, it depends on the orientations that are adopted with regard to EU priorities and budgetary constraints. In order to enable European tourism to continue to develop in a competitive and sustainable way, in line with the Europe 2020 strategy (Pasimeni and Pasimeni, 2016, pp. 1021-1038) and the Lisbon Treaty, the Commission examines ways and means of strengthening support and coordination measures for European tourism, giving new impetus to European tourism policy.

In an increasingly competitive environment, the tourism industry needs a new impetus. Europe must work to offer a competitive, modern, sustainable and responsible tourism that generates added value to the territory and is attractive for citizens of third countries and also for Europeans themselves, respects the environment and generates sustainable socio-economic value. (Estol and Font, 2016, pp. 230-241) Over the next few years, the European Commission plans to launch numerous initiatives to complement the actions of the Member States. The effectiveness of the actions undertaken will depend on the degree of commitment of the public authorities and, to a greater extent, the commitment of the sector and the capacity of both parties to work in a coordinated manner.

Finally, it is also necessary to open the door to the development of coordinated initiatives between the public and private sectors to ensure that in the future, the focus on the tourism sector and its coordination with other policies is not diminished.

STRATEGIES OF TOURISM POLICY IN THE EUROPEAN CONTEXT

As for the strategies of the tourist policy, the continuity in the processes is remarkable. Although the strategies have presented variations in the way they are expressed or grouped in the different documents, they remain on the same topics recognized from the Conventions of tourist competitiveness. The documents identify the constant presence of the strategies or actions related to infrastructure; security; institutional strengthening; product; marketing and promotion; tourism information systems and use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs); human resource and education.

Regarding the strategies, it is necessary to emphasize that those related to institutional strengthening and security lose relative importance in the Tourism Sector Plan, emphasizing world-class tourist destination, where there is included as part of the improvement and consolidation strategy of competitiveness. The advances in security with the Democratic Security Policy and the legal provisions to institutionally strengthen the planning and management of tourism have determined that these aspects are no longer so constraining for the development of tourism. (Xin, Tribe, Chambers, 2013, pp.68-72)

The following are the main tourism policy strategies: security, promotion and marketing, tourism infrastructure, tourism product, quality, education and tourism information:

Security- the success of the campaign of caravans or tourist routes, conceived as a mechanism to generate confidence in road travelers and to reactivate internal tourism through police escort Roads and Armed Forces on the routes that lead to the main tourist sites during the bridges and holiday seasons. For example, from 2008-2012, a total of 2234 tourist routes have been carried out, in addition the security image generated by the campaign that was permanently supported by the presence of the Armed Forces on the roads and the Safety Councils in certain regions.

Promotion and marketing – this strategy was boosted with the delegation of international promotion functions by different non-financial export promotion agency, which has commercial offices abroad. In compliance with the foregoing, promotion activities were intensified with support for participation in international fairs and the organization of different trips. Brand country is a figure that reflects the magnitude of the efforts is the attendance at profile fairs.

At the same time, there is a continuous effort to improve the image of different countries abroad, which has been reflected in the attenuation of the travel warning of the Germany, Switzerland and France; the return of important cruise companies to the main ports; and positive articles on the country in important international journals, including the recognition of different countries as one of the 10 recommended destinations of the Lonely Planet travel guide.

The strategy of improving the image of the country developing in parallel with certain's appearance in the media by negative news produced by the country's internal conflict. For the actors of the sector, the positive results show that the country's violence situation should not be an excuse to promotional abandon efforts, according to Seetanah and Sannassee (2015), "there are two themes: the bad image of tourism and lack of image" (Seetanah, Sannassee, 2015, pp. 202-215.). Since the 1980s and until a few years ago the bad image, a product of the internal conflict, was accompanied by the absence of a tourist image.

The promotion strategy has been supported by management to promote accessibility through the increase of international air frequencies, in this way, the category of „Open Skies” has been decreed for 5 of the country's international airports.

Tourism infrastructure – In order to improve the tourist offer, and more specifically to encourage the creation of tourist infrastructure, the legal frame exempting taxes was formulated, a findeter line of credit was created to finance tourist activities and redefined the figure of Tourist Free Zones, an incentive that still does not show the expected results. Law exempted from the income tax for a term of thirty years to services rendered in new hotels that are built within the fifteen years following the validity of the law; the income tax was also exempted from ecotourism services certified by the Ministries of the Environment for a term of twenty years.

Tax incentives for investment have contributed to the increase in hotel supply, and the creation of alternative accommodation has been encouraged through the Tourist Inns Program, which consists of the adaptation and construction of tourist productive homes, in such a way that they are created in the conditions to accommodate the tourists in the dwellings of the residents destinations, especially in those regions that do not have developed a tourist accommodation plan. On the other hand, due to the lack of tourist information in the main tourist destinations of the continent, progress is being made in consolidating a Network of Tourist Information Points. Currently, a policy document dedicated to establishing tourist infrastructure needs is required in this segment. In terms of infrastructure, the european public sector will focus on the development of transport infrastructure for tourist destinations, while the regions will focus their efforts on providing public services and enhancing attractions, tourist signage and improving tourism. (Wang, 1999, pp.330-332) Other weaknesses detected by the Conventions of tourist competitiveness may be observed as following:

Tourism product, in a complementary way to general tourism policies have developed policies, related to products were formulated policies for ecotourism and culture. The Policy for the development of ecotourism was elaborated in response to the proposal that had defined ecotourism as a product Potential, and to the requirements of various regions of the European continent that have enormous potential for the development of this type of product; one defines the conceptual bases for the development of the activity and identifies strategic lines for its development. European tourism policy is based on the idea that regions play a leading role, through the efforts of authorities and the private sector to create a highly competitive product offering for national and international markets. To the considered extent, the current tourism offer does not reflect the potential resources available to the area, the objective has been diversification, in the official tourism portal the country's offer is structured in the following typologies:

Sport and adventure, where diving is mainly promoted.

Sun and beach

Nature, with Natural Parks, bird watching in many sites of the area and rural tourism.

History and tradition, with a calendar composed of fairs and festivals throughout the continent, archeological sites and handicrafts. UNESCO sites are also included.

Congresses and incentives.

At the same time that diversification is promoted, as the Sectorial Plan of tourism establishes the need to promote competitive products that allow Europe to position in segments of higher income in the international market, denominated „world class” and they are:

Ecotourism, especially in protected areas that have concessioned services.

Cultural tourism, with emphasis on cultural events of great recognition.

Health, in cities with good infrastructure and competitive human capital.

Congresses and conventions, driven by the construction of high quality convention centers throughout the country.

Since the 1990s the country has been proposing various types of tourism, but this has been more a political intentionality that has not yet been reflected in the market. This „apparent” diversification of the supply was supported by the Conventions of tourist competitiveness where different destinations presented their vision on the type of tourism development they wanted, but in the catalogs of the international operators the european tourist supply continues to concentrate on the principal Destinations of the European region.

Tourism quality – this policy aims to improve the quality of tourism services, strengthening quality management in companies and tourist destinations, in such a way as to position Europe as a quality, differentiated and competitive destination in tourist markets . The Tourist Quality Certification Mark is designed for the improvement, promotion and recognition of tourist services quality.

The Ministries of Tourism in member states coordinate the definition of standardization programs and quality standards for each of the tourism sub-sectors, and for the implementation of tourism excellence and sustainability certification plans. By nowadays, the brand had been applied to hotels, restaurants, travel agencies, tourism guides and rural accommodations.

Education – an Indicative Plan for Education in the tourism sector was drawn up, through a concerted effort with the different actors in the sector. The document defines the guidelines to guide the education that tourism requires in Europe, in the sense of strengthening human capital through adequate quality training that responds to business needs, new market demands and the challenges of training flexibility and of competitiveness. In this respect, the plan aims to strengthen the work of schools of training and training in tourism, by structuring a network of educational entities. Likewise, it seeks to promote research and generation of knowledge on the European tourist sector, through the creation of a tourism observatory and a tourism information and training center.

Tourist information – the advances presented in the previous aspects contrast with the poor results in terms of the tourist information system.

In summary, it should be noted that tourism policy has covered strategies on issues that are considered as priorities for strengthening competitiveness in the XXI Century, using traditional strategies such as tax incentives and promotion, while raising the need of instruments based on knowledge management (research, information systems, education, management of new technologies), the latter without results. Although significant progress has been made in terms of tourism policy, the list of proposed strategies and actions still shows gaps in which further progress is needed, in fact some of the policy plans are still too general and do not To evaluate their compliance, except for the goals established in the Sector Plan of which it is difficult to know their level of compliance. There is no monitoring system or sufficient information to do so. The optimism regarding tourism is based on the achievements but also on the difficult situation in which tourism was at the beginning of this period. (Bonca, Morar, 2014, p.32)

TOURIST DESTINATIONS: KEY OPPORTUNITIES TO SUSTAINABILITY

Different manifestations in the world have made it possible to verify that the very existence of tourism can impose a pressure on the capacity of the environment it uses and that tourism activity can degrade the very foundations on which its prosperity rests. The strong socio-environmental pressure caused by the increase in tourist activities and the deterioration of resources in different tourist destinations in the world have led to convergence between the themes about tourism development and the sustainability paradigm.

UNWTO (1993) defines sustainable tourism as it is designed to meet the needs of current tourists, generating income and social welfare at the destination, while at the same time conserving resources and ensuring the continuity of offers and activities to long term. They are formulations based on the search for the integral compatibility between preservation and development, and are the first signs of the future scenario for the construction of the strategies of the sector, which has in the environmental and cultural demands the main competitive demands.

To achieve this, the structuring of a local tourism offer that acts in the medium and long term as an important development factor is essential. It is also necessary to make it possible to take advantage of the potential offered by the territory, providing new modalities based on balanced and sustained use, as well as a use and administration of tourism resources under a comprehensive and flexible practice in line with the competitive dynamics. Sustainable tourism introduces the new concept of tourism and describes its application, both in tourism policy and in the initiatives of the sector itself, through specific chapters for administrations, businesses and tourists. From the point of view of this work, it is a concept that implies, in any case, the use of a resource management model from the perspective of its projection towards the future, that is, a planned model (Firoiu, Gheorghe, Pețan, 2007, pp.20-25).

To evaluate the degree of development achieved by a tourism plan, the theoretical models consider tourism sustainable when it: (Waver, 2012, pp. 389-402)

respects (does not damage) and values ​​the natural, cultural, human and social environment where it manifests itself;

provides significant direct financial benefits and / or resources for community development (infrastructures, education, organizational tools and so on);

promotes local participation in the project, or promotes a participatory process of community members in the process of their own development as human beings;

integrates permanent evaluation and monitoring tools to ensure control over impacts.

The concept and implementation of sustainable tourism necessarily implies interdependence of the public institution with its policy of action, environment, local population and visitors who are in a situation of permanent interaction. Despite its ambiguous content, what is intended is to discuss what is valid, serious and objective in the ideal of sustainable development. Although integration of tourism policy into a broader sustainable development strategy has been seen recently, it can not be understood only as a deliberate choice of a strategy to institutionalize environmental issues in the field of international organizations and national governments (Godfrey, 1998).

Beyond placing the need for ecological prudence on the international agenda, sustainable guidelines should be interpreted as scripts for tourism managers to deal with tourism competitiveness and commitment to the quality of life of localities. In order for sustainability to acquire a real stature that influences social processes, it is necessary to develop a new generation of values ​​and concepts, methodologies and instruments, all of them congruent with one another. (Kelly, 2010, p.114)

The vision of the future constitutes an important element for the differentiation between the tourist destinations. The principles that guide the vision in the framework of sustainable tourism are mainly focused on limiting the impact of their activities on the biosphere, maintaining the biological heritage, using resources without exhausting them, achieving a fair distribution of costs and benefits, promoting clean technologies, use the economic policy to maintain natural resources and decide with foresight and cross-sectoral criteria.

The compatibility between the potentialities and impacts of tourism is a result of the vision of the future undertaken by local management, which guides and conditions the actions of tourism development. Thus, understanding the vision and the strategic choice allows us to consider the future and the competitive capacity of the destination. These elements are understandable when they are formally declared and are widely communicated to the public interested in local tourism, because it is precisely the process of participatory planning that prints and sets the development model that should guide tourism strategies and actions in the destination. (Hall, Page, 2014, pp.36).

In other words, tourism competitiveness demands to treat sustainability as a strategic condition in the organization and management of destinations and above all in the composition and overvaluation of supply. The challenge is to choose a tourism offer model that assumes the impact of tourism on the local economy, reconfiguring a new structure of its productive and management system, but at the same time it must strive to preserve its social and cultural identity as a fundamental value. (Conlin, Baum, 1995, pp.88-102)

However, the ability to understand that sustainable practices offer a wide range of opportunities for the tourism sector has ensured that a few take a leading position with a long competitive edge in attention to market segments sensitive to such stimuli and with a perspective of continuous growth (Mangion, Durbarry, Sinclair, 2005, pp.45-68.), on a scale that widens the consciousness of diversity and where the search for quality of life returns the icon of the millennium.

The direct links between tourism activities and the quality of the environment show that the sector has much to offer and to win by becoming a leader in sustainable development (Hudson & Miller, 2003; Mihalic, 2000). This is particularly true in emerging tourism countries, where tourism is both a support for development and a vehicle for the rescue and maintenance of cultural identity. Also, this concept is particularly valid in fragile environments, where the development of the tourism sector can constitute a significant force in the maintenance or even to improve the environment. The integration of tourism policy and the promotion of sustainable tourism, based on what might be termed tourism management plans, are among the most urgent requirements for the adoption of guidelines for the implementation of tourism supply, urbanization processes, landscape management, as well as control over polluting activities, usually outside the tourism legislation. (Hall, Page, 2015, pp. 308-309). It is not only a question of qualifying, modernizing and renewing destinations, as has been done up to now, but that there is a need to limit the continued growth of the offer and to undertake an integrated planning of tourist areas and destinations that allows selection of the type of offer, Implementation models and their infrastructural requirements.

COMPETITIVE MODELS FOR TOURISTIC DESTINATIONS AS A KEY TO SUSTAINABILITY

The advances in the understanding of the factors that determine the competitiveness of tourist destinations and, above all, the inclusion of sustainability as an indicator of performance have led to different theoretical models that attempt to represent the complex system where tourism is represented by the whole network of interactions. In theoretical and conceptual terms, the main models are represented below. Each one of them is succinctly defined and analyzed under a critical evaluation of its properties and based on attributes as motivations for its development, objectives of the model and theoretical and practical foundations. (Ritchie, Crouch, 2003, p.79-83).

Models of Tourism Development and Environmental Impacts – New Coordinates

The interpretation of how tourism is progressing, where it can reach and what can be achieved with different ways of implementing it, has been a continuous effort of scientists in recent years. According to Poon (1993), tourism development models are summarized in two basic types: intensive continuous and extensive point.

The intensive continuum follows the pattern of the traditional tourist development model whose characteristics correspond to the densification and urban congestion, deterioration of the landscape and the environment, standardized offers, disconnection between spaces, wastage of resources and strong negative impacts on the environment.

The extensive point corresponds to alternative models of tourism development, invariably based on a horizontal and balanced development that causes a high quality image in the recovery and use of resources and landscape. "It is characterized by an important prevention of pollution and a concern for the protection of natural spaces, while incorporating cultural resources" (Poon (1993, p.87).

For certain authors, the first corresponds to the model of traditional tourist development; the second is elevated as an alternative model, in response to the characteristics of the new tourist model and to the new coordinates of the management of the tourist space. (Wood, 1993;  Mowforth, Munt, 2015)  The factors and characteristics of the tourism model can be understood through four major forces: consumers, technology, production and management, each of which has multiple implications in its analysis dimension. These forces are determined by a very unique and unique global and competitive set in history, where factors such as flexibility, segmentation and environmental concern have become factors of tourism development.

The focus of analysis of Mowforth and Munt (2015) is the environment and in this respect, they point as the new coordinates of the management of the tourist space, the following aspects:

"growing sensitivity to landscape degradation and the environmental costs of tourism growth" (p. 88);

"protection of natural spaces, such as coastal strips, islands, rivers, mountains, flora, etc." (p.88);

"enhancement of natural resources as an alternative supply and allowing the recovery of the territory as an essential attraction: trails, round roads, old railroad tracks, etc." (p.88);

"incorporation of cultural resources into the tourist offer: museums, archeological parks, typical music or gastronomy festivals, monumental or historical itineraries, etc." (p.88).

Although the authors' considerations do not explicitly refer to the economic dimension of tourism sustainability and that the main parameters of support to the model are from observations made in urban destinations in European countries, such as Spain, the elements and factors involved in the interpretation of the authors are usually the same for any other tourist resort concerned with global competitiveness, whether it is in the middle of the crowded Mediterranean or in the farthest corners of Europe. The approach is derived from the studies and contributions of the authors in their academic activities and in consulting for the treatment of emergent themes in tourism such as the environment, one of the main variables influencing the decisions towards sustainable development for tourism. Regarding the scientific basis of the proposal, although based on long experience in planning destinations and tourism products, the interpretation reproduced here has a fundamentally conceptual theoretical character.

Model of the Integrated Interfunctional System of Competitiveness in Tourist Destinations Mazanec, Wöber and Zins. (2007) propose a theoretical reference model that guides methodologically the analyzes and studies on the integration of the elements of the tourist system and their interrelations in a cluster. "With a holistic approach and based on the general theory of systems, the tourism sector, specifically a tourist cluster, is considered to be an open homeostatic system with equifinality, configured to achieve sustainable competitiveness". (Mazanec, Wöber, Zins, 2007 , pp. 86-95)

In the perception of the authors, a cluster presents intrinsic characteristics of the current phase of globalization, since it integrates with a common objective the various intersectoral institutions that arise from the new public and private relationship: mixed entities, governmental, nongovernmental, Workforce training, project incubators, trade class associations, information agencies, research and technical support bodies. A cluster is formed by independent companies united informally to be able to offer the client differential advantages. According to Musa (2001, pp.15-18), it is an alternative way of organizing the value chain through networks of alliances and partnerships between companies in order to increase and facilitate flexibility to overcome rigid traditional competition. The model of the Integrated Interfunctional System of Competitiveness in Tourist Destinations that support is formed by five factors and their interrelations in the tourism system: the first two, the critical mass and the nature of the demand have the characteristics of creating basic conditions For the development of the cluster. These provide a starting configuration for your strategic planning. The three elements that complete the model are those that improve the competitive advantage of the cluster and are concretized through competitive strategies, cooperative strategies and strategies of relationship with the client. (Hall, 2005, pp. 149-164)

Critical mass is the set of basic factors necessary for the development of the tourist destination. It covers the integration of tourism resources (land, water, geography, climate, location); quality, training, historical cultural identity, social participation; capital (incentives, investments, risks); infrastructure (transport system, telecommunications, facilities for investment); of knowledge (scientific technicians, universities, research and development, trade associations, non-governmental organizations, governing bodies and development bodies); superstructure (intersectoral institutional organization, private and public relations, class entities, relations with sending countries); security (bodies of certification of sustainability, tourist support system, guarantee of free enjoyment of the stay and the use of its attractions with safety).

Regarding the nature of demand, certain authors interpret through attributes derived from the nature, desires and expectations of the tourist consumer, the demand potential and the standards of quality or sophistication of the segments addressed. (Song, Li, 2008, pp.215-218)

The competitive strategy that, according to Porter (1993), must be based on a vigorous internal rivalry, without restrictions and in equal conditions to compete, results in a fertile environment in which the companies of the cluster can grow competitively. This type of competition requires updated strategies and constant introduction of innovations to better meet the needs of the customer. A group of strong internal rivals in the cluster constitutes an essential ingredient for the competitive event in this type of configurations. The international success of the cluster requires a local environment that places companies in international standards of quality of services and that, instead of inhibiting, facilitates to reach these standards of competitiveness. The style of competing within the cluster must be vigorous to better satisfy the customer based on quality and differentiation, thus improving their identity by their competitiveness.

The process of geographical grouping that is intrinsic to the tourism sector underlies the cooperation strategy. This concentration in poles or destinations with tourist attractions has not always been accompanied by the promotion of the interrelationships and alliances of the agents of the system. It has been used the generic name of tourist cluster as a synonym of destination or pole, although it does not operate with characteristics of the clusters already matured in other economic sectors in the current phase of globalization.

The cluster, as a special configuration that emerges in the context of globalization, has as its main property the narrowing of relations between organizations to create a network of synergies; its objective is the development of joint competitive strategies, creating and delivering greater value to the market, through cooperative relations between independent companies that have the same objective, although they compete with each other. The proposed model suggests that the real difference between tourist cluster and traditional tourist pole is that, in addition to considering the starting elements (critical mass and nature of the demand), essential to develop the pole, a tourist cluster seeks its competitive position on global scale through a three-dimensional space, which combines competitive strategies, cooperative strategies and customer relations strategies that, with their inputs or inputs (needs, desires and expectations), optimize the configuration of the system, feedback it with the simultaneous process of production, consumption and evaluation. This is a process whose competitive advantage is achieved by the vector resulting from the three strategies. (Gardiner, Scott, 2014, pp. 171-173)

The model is not characterized by the dimensions of sustainability and represents an adaptation of Porter's model (1995), to support the proposal of tourist clusters as a more effective strategy for competitiveness. As stated in the first paragraph, the proposition is of theoretical reference and abstract methodological scope.

Tourist Destination Classification – The Premier-ranked Tourist Destination

The Premier-Ranked tourist Destinations Workbook (Genest, Legg, 2003) is a methodology developed with the support of the Euopean Governments to serve as a tool to measure the competitive status or market situation of a tourist destination. The tool serves as an instrument at the service of management and its intent is to involve all elements and critical variables of the competitive context for tourist destinations. The information disclosed usually serves as a basis for strategic planning and for the development of tourism as an economic activity of a locality.

For the authors, the methodology is structured in a way that makes possible:

capture the attributes/ factors/ conditions considered necessary for a tourist destination to be perceived as being in a privileged competitive position;

identify weaknesses and threats that can be managed or circumvented;

identify strengths and opportunities that can be used to create sustainable competitive advantages;

promote coordinated action among different sectors, favoring consensus on priorities for future action.

The evaluation consists of a systematic analytical process of the conditions of competitiveness of the destination through three dimensions of analysis: product, performance and future, including measures of sustainability and factor interrelations. (Pyke, Hartwell, Blake, Hemingway, 2016, p.103).

The product dimension evaluates the conditions of the destination's tourism offer and its capacity to provide shocking experiences to the visitor, through the following attributes: resources and essential attractions; quality and critical mass; satisfaction and value; accessibility; and equipment and services.

The performance dimension evaluates the results of the sector and if the destination succeeds in providing quality experiences to the visitors, through attributes and indicators of the tourist flow, occupation and profitability, and critical recognition and image.

The future dimension assesses the ability of fate to remain competitive over time, analyzing the factors and attributes of marketing strategies, innovation and renewal and local sustainability.

For each of the factors and attributes are indicated criteria and measures that support the interpretation. The methodology is specified in a working guide where they are described from the form of their application, to the requirements and criteria for interpretation of their results. It acquires an eminently practical and application to the reality of any destination interested in evaluating its competitive conditions in a given context.

However, the proposition, although imparting a well-delimited state of the question and a theoretical basis of reference for the choice of criteria and dimensions of analysis, focuses its focus on competitive elements of supply and marketing. In other words, the perspective and scope of the instrument are focused on the components of tourism marketing, without being directly related to the conditions of local development, such as the politics and management of local tourism, and also without deepening the impacts Tourism activities, whether positive or negative. In short, the proposal is not developed to evaluate competitiveness in the key to sustainability, although it contemplates fundamental attributes and indicators of the approach, rather it serves to know what makes a destination achieve a position of competitive leadership in a given context. (Pyke, Hartwell, Blake, Hemingway, 2016, p.95).

According to the authors, the test confirmed the utility of the model and its ability to identify the strengths and weaknesses of a region, management difficulties and a wide range of aspects that are present in each of its dimensions of analysis. Above all, they argue that the methodology must be understood as an instrument that enables the interested parties to give and carry out a self-assessment of current and future conditions of competitiveness in the context of tourism.

Conceptual Model of Competitiveness and Sustainability for Tourist Destinations

The model presented by Ritchie and Crouch (2003) is the result of his studies and research in tourism during the last decade motivated by the increase of competitiveness in the world of tourism. Since the first public presentation of the model in 1993, the authors have promoted the continuous revision and adaptation of the variables that compose the model for the new imperatives of the competitive context determined by sociocultural, economic, anthropological, technological, behavioral and environmental elements among those of greater impact (Crouch, Ritchie, 1999).

In the evaluation of the authors, the most significant change between previous model presentations and their current interpretation is that the tourism policy and destination management previously treated separately and independently, but in the context of current competitiveness are the They are considered by mutual and close interdependence and are interpreted as responsible elements for the necessary connection between the desired – plans – and the actions that daily addresses a destination – programs. For them, this is an indispensable category for engendering the conditions under which tourism can be developed in an appropriate and sustainable way (Ritchie, Crouch, 2003, p.145).

As shown in its graphic representation, the model of Competitive Destinations and Sustainability is almost exhaustive in terms of dimensions and attributes that complete what is understood by tourism system and by the variables that condition its competitiveness. The main impact factors are classified into five categories of strategic elements as summarized below. Taking as a reference the meaning of comparative advantage and competitive advantage in the context of tourism, the scheme refers to innate and attractive resources essential as primary elements of destination appeal and which are key elements for the motivation and persuasion of visitors and for studies Prospective on demand and marketing. For Crouch and Ritchie (1999, p. 147) these resources are distributed in other subcategories: climate and nature, culture and history, ethnicity, activities, special events and tourist superstructure. In the judgment of the authors, the range of activities offered is a critical element of the appeal of a destination and over which managers have extensive influence and control. This is a relevant aspect for the thesis and will be rescued in the proposition chapter. Important is the justification when they include the category superstructure as one of the primary factors of attraction. One argue that if on the one hand it is recognized the fact of the visitor does not choose a destination just for bed and food, rather for the call in key to the attractions it holds, on the other hand, looking towards emblematic examples such as Barcelona and Paris in Europe, it is perceived that, in accordance with the quality of these resources, they can themselves be an important part of the attraction, that is, the components of tourist superstructure can be projected in such a way that they are the primary factors of attraction for visitors.

A second major category is classified in the model of Ritchie and Crouch (2003), as factors and resources of support. These, as the name already indicates, are related to the elements that enable the activities and enjoyment of tourism services to be realized, since they include infrastructure, basic and complementary services, accessibility and entrepreneurial and business capacity in the destination. These two major categories of primary factors constitute the pillars on which tourism can be based on a particular destination, since they serve as raw materials or inputs for the third major category named by Ritchie and Crouch (2003, p.12) of destiny. It is linked to the organization of the destination and the decision-making processes on marketing and competitive position, human resources and training, research and development, capital raising and investments, among many others. The mission of the administration is to enhance the attractiveness of primary and support resources, to strengthen quality and effectiveness, and finally to adapt the resources of the destination to the competitive determinants.

According to the aforementioned, in this last version of the model a new category of factors related to politics, planning and development of the destination whose components refer to the great orientations for the tourism, like the philosophy, vision and guidelines for the development , Which will result in decisions on position and level of co-participation, in addition to the necessary permanent audit, monitoring and evaluation measures regarding the performance and impacts of tourism in the destination. According to the authors' view, an understanding of the meaning of tourism policy requires an analysis through three dimensions: the structure of the policy, which establishes a scheme of interrelation within which specific contents can be formulated; a systematic process of policy formulation that involves the different and complementary tourism interest groups. This process is influenced by the dynamics and interaction of the actors and factors of the system, since it presupposes a minimum basis of consensus among the agents to define the structure and content of this same policy for the tourism of a specific destination.

A more detailed conceptualization of the political structure of tourism is in Goeldner et al. (2000). As fifth and final macrocategory of factors that integrate to the conceptual model are pointed the qualifying qualifiers and enhancers. Some of these factors are related to the geographic location and carrying capacity of the destination that are characterized by being involuntary and in respect of which management can only be enhanced; at the same time, other factors such as security, image, cost / value and levels of interdependence of destinations are conditioned by strategies defined and managed by local tourism managers in conjunction with other agents and bettors. That is, a few determinants are not possible for strategic intervention by the local administration, since most of them can and should be treated as elements capable of integrating the characteristics of the place with those implemented in the destination because of the intervention and political and administrative organization in order to reach quality levels capable of projecting the destination in the dispute for a place in the sun. Such a condition represents the medium in which tourism develops; in the model it is segmented by a macro level, in reference to the uncontrollable global variables, such as technology, economy, environment, conventions and diplomacies, politics, etc .; And a micro level, referring to variables of the closest environment understood as that which characterizes the competitive conditions of a tourist destination and is, ultimately, what differentiates one from the others according to the authors.

The model is conceptual; it is neither predictive nor causal; rather it is a proposal in their primary conjectures. The model is relatively abstract in its current format and does not allow specific empirical applications or generalizations. It is better defined as a theory or topic, in accordance with the topology of Neuman (Crouch & Ritchie, 1999, p.146).

The greatest merit of the model is to be exhaustive in the point of view of the dimensions and factors involved in the tourism system and in the interpretation of the context and conditioning factors of the competitiveness for key destinations to sustainability. For this thesis, it represents the most complete and well-founded theoretical frame of reference based on maturity, depth and breadth in the reading of the medium and conditions of impact on tourism as a sector and on the activities that originate from it and which must be observed by those who decide to follow their routes.

The virtue of a strategic planning approach is to provide a generic framework that accommodates different combinations of public and private initiatives, with a clear identification of the roles and responsibilities of each party, favoring an integrated analysis for destination management, through a set of factors enabled to mediate the performance of tourist destinations. In a general way it can be said that the state of the matter with respect to the topic dealt with in this article places in the stage of sedimentation of the general postulates that base the approximations derived from them, which prove to be shaped by means of ample debate and articulation between different actors and sectors.

After the study and analysis of the models it is felt that the dimensions, elements, mechanisms and indicators of evaluation of the conditions of competitiveness are indicated in their representations, and highlights the fact of the factors that effectively determine these conditions, although with different nominations, are contemplated in all formats of theoretical interpretation of the set of circumstances, indicating the strengths and weaknesses to face the context of competition between destinations. It also reveals a certain level of consensus among scientists regarding the factors of strategic consideration for the sustainable management of local tourism. Meanwhile the location and interconnections of and between each factor in the proper interpretation of the tourism system of each model, is what make them different from each other. As for the general guidelines for tourism development, the evidence indicates that more and more destinations are adopting a strategic perspective that combines marketing interests with a vision of tourism development; a concern with the multidimensional impacts of tourism, against a closely economic concern; a look at the long-term horizon over short-term effects; in short, a key orientation to sustainable tourism.

As Ritchie and Crouch (2003), whose model is the one that best represents the tourism system in the context of sustainable development, destinations that are oriented by their principles towards planning and management recognize that competitiveness is illusory without sustainability. In the authors' view, which corresponds fully to the thinking of the present analysis, the terms competitiveness and sustainability for tourism is today a tautology.

ACTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Regarding the general and international panorama, the European Union makes some recommendations in this respect, being observed as following:

Support the efforts of the least developed countries in investing in the tourism industry and developing enterprises in the broad tourism economy. In particular through increased access to financing and development of local human resources;

Assist the least developed countries to achieve economic efficiency, competitiveness and sustainability in tourism operations, and to assist them in accessing and participating in global distribution systems and the appropriate use of technology;

Helping the least developed countries to promote synergies between transport and tourism, particularly: air transport;

Consider financial, technological and other assistance to support the efforts of the least developed countries in strengthening their national capacities in the tourism sector.

These actions are part of a comprehensive work towards the growing recognition of the key contribution that tourism development can generate for an equitable economy, social progress and fight against poverty. The European Union through its specialized agency suggests eleven principles and recommendations for governments in connection with tourism and the fight against poverty to adopt. The suggested principles are:

Main priority: to ensure that the sustainable development of tourism is included in the general programs to combat poverty. Include measures to eliminate poverty through strategies for the sustainable development of tourism;

Partnership: to develop partnerships between international sectors, government, non-governmental agencies and the private sector, with a common goal of reducing poverty through tourism;

Integration: to adopt a comprehensive approach with other sectors and avoid over-dependence on tourism;

Equitable distribution: to ensure that tourism development strategies focus on a greater and better equitable distribution of welfare and services. Growing alone is not enough;

Acting Locally: to focus actions at a local destination level, within the context of supporting national policies;

Retention: to reduce departures and leaks from the local economy and building bridges within the same local economy, focusing on the supply chain;

Feasibility: to maintain financial discipline and viable assets of all actions taken:

Empowerment: to create conditions that empower and enable the poor to have access to information, to influence and to make decisions;

Human Rights: to remove all forms of discrimination against people working or looking for work in the tourism sector, to eliminate any type of exploitation, especially those against women and children;

Commitment: to establish a long-term plan of action and implementation of resources;

Monitoring: to develop simple indicators and systems to measure the impact of tourism on poverty.

Due to the importance of tourism activity in globalization, as an important source of income and a tool to reduce poverty, there is an imminent need to carry out an aggregate of public policies that promote sustainable tourism, reflecting the commitment to preserve the environment, for the sake of sustainability. Due to the above, in the area of ​​environment and climate change the following recommendations are made according to those made by the European Union:

The tourism sector must act with immediate response to the effects of climate change, progressively reducing its contribution to the generation of greenhouse gases, related as mentioned, with activities related to transport and accommodation. This can be based on an eagerness to raise awareness of the importance of environmental conservation and energy rationalization.

One should make companies related to the sector adapt to the new climate conditions, in this way, we try to keep constant the potential with which tourism counts.

One should apply new clean technologies and logistics in order to use energy resources more efficiently.

One should encourage consumer awareness in destinations and sending markets to change consumer habits that are harmful to the climate.

CASE STUDY

CARTEL ON ALL TRAVEL AGENCIES

Cartel businesses are not exposed to competitive pressure that forces economic operators to launch new products and offer consumers better quality and competitive pricing. As a result, consumers will pay more for a lower quality.

Cartels are not compatible with EU competition law, in other words, they are illegal. The European Commission applies very large fines to companies that conclude such agreements. Because they are illegal, these agreements are generally secret, and the evidence of their existence is hard to find.

The Commission applies a "leniency policy" to encourage cartels to provide evidence. Thus, businesses that provide the first information are not amended. This approach has yielded results and many cartels have been eliminated.

Analysis of anticompetitive practice

Object of the cartel

The main object of the cartel in the context of anticompetitive tourism practice is price fixing for tourism services. From this first approach, the cartel has always sought the impact. The competition authority suspects travel agencies to coordinate their commercial policies "in order to impose a minimum price for the sale of tourist products and / or tourist packages and to maintain a status quo on the market starting with 2013".

Law articles regarding the practice

The law governing the practice of competition is Law no. 21/1996, Text published in the Official Monit of Romania, available since 30 January 1997.

The most relevant articles in this regard are:

Art. 1. – The purpose of this law is to protect, maintain and stimulate competition and a normal competitive environment in order to promote the interests of consumers.

Art. 3. – The administration of this law and its implementation shall be entrusted to the Competition Council, as an autonomous administrative authority, invested for this purpose under the conditions, modalities and limits established by the following provisions.

Art. 4. –

(1) Product prices and tariffs for services and works are freely determined by competition, based on demand and supply. The prices and tariffs practiced in activities of a natural monopoly or of economic activities, established by law, shall be established and adjusted with the approval of the Ministry of Public Finance, except for those for which special powers are provided for by special laws.
(2) In the economic sectors or markets where competition is excluded or substantially restricted by the effect of a law or because of the existence of a monopoly position, the Government may, by decision, establish appropriate forms of price control for a maximum period of three years , Which may be prolonged successively for periods of not more than one year, if the circumstances justifying the adoption of that judgment continue to exist.

(3) For determined economic sectors and in exceptional circumstances such as: crisis situations, major imbalance between supply and demand and obvious market failure, the Government may order temporary measures to combat excessive price hikes or even foreclosure. Such measures may be adopted by decision for a period of six months, which may be extended successively for periods of not more than three months, as long as the circumstances which led to the adoption of that judgment persist.

Art.5.

(1) Any express or tacit agreements between economic agents or associations of economic agents, any decisions taken by the associations of economic agents and any concerted practices that have as object or have the effect of restricting, preventing or distorting the competition on the Romanian market or on one side are forbidden, in particular those which pursue:

a) the direct or indirect fixing, directly or indirectly, of sale or purchase prices, tariffs, rebates, additions, and any other commercial conditions;

b) limiting or controlling production, distribution, technological development or investment;

c) sharing outlets or sources of supply, on a territorial basis, of sales and purchases, or other criteria;

d) the application of unequal conditions to equivalent services as regards trading partners, thus causing some of them a disadvantage in the competitive position;

e) conditional on the conclusion of contracts for the acceptance by partners of clauses providing additional benefits which, by their nature and according to commercial usage, are not related to the subject of such contracts;

f) concurrent participation in bidding or any other form of bidding;

g) the removal from the market of other competitors, the restriction or impediment of market access and the freedom of competition by other economic agents, as well as the agreements not to buy from or not to sell to certain economic agents without reasonable justification.

Art. 6. Abusive use of a dominant position held by one or more economic agents on the Romanian market or a substantial part of it by using anticompetitive acts which have as object or may have the effect of impairing the economic activity or consumer harm. Such abusive practices may consist in particular in:

a) imposing, directly or indirectly, the sale or purchase prices of unfair tariffs or other unfair contract terms and the refusal to deal with certain suppliers or recipients;

b) limiting production, distribution or technological development to the disadvantage of users or consumers;

c) the application of unequal conditions to equivalent services to trading partners, thereby causing some of them a disadvantage in the competitive position;

d) conditional on the conclusion of contracts for the acceptance by partners of clauses providing additional benefits which, by their nature and according to commercial usage, are not related to the subject of such contracts;

e) excessive prices or pricing, in order to eliminate competitors or export sales below cost of production, covering differences by imposing higher prices on domestic consumers;

f) exploitation of the state of dependence in which another economic agent is located in relation to such an agent or economic agents and which does not have an alternative solution under equivalent conditions, as well as the breaking of contractual relations for the sole reason that the partner refuses to be subject to unjustified commercial conditions.

Also, EU competition law includes four areas, which are also the four lines of action of Community competition policy:

1. Antitrust rules (Articles 101 and 102 of the EC Treaty), which prohibit anti-competitive agreements, concerted practices and abuse of a dominant position;

2. Merger Regulation 4064/89 as amended by Regulation 139/2004, which refers to the control of economic concentration operations in order to prevent the creation or strengthening of dominant positions;

3. The liberalization rules for certain economic sectors in which some enterprises benefit from exclusive and special rights granted by the State, which excludes or restricts competition (Article 106 of the EC Treaty and secondary legislation);

4. The State Aid Control Regulations (Articles 107-109 of the EC Treaty).

Description of the parts

In the context of anticompetitive practice, ANAT headquarters and also large sector operators such as Paralela 45, Eximtur and Mareea, whose managers are actually three of the ANAT vice-presidents (Alin Burcea, Lucia Morariu and Marius Usturoiu, respectively) were verified. In total, besides ANAT, inspections were carried out at headquarters and work stations at 12 tourism companies across the country. In this respect, it is about Parallel 45, Paravion, Eximtur, Mare, Christian Tour, Perfect Tour, HappyTour, Eurolines, Klever Travel, Europabus, Danubius Travel and Amarino. Depending on the irregularities found, companies risk fines of up to 10% of their turnover. But the investigation may last for another year or two.

Paralela 45 was set up in April 1990 by two friends, Alin Burcea and Adrian Grigorescu, who worked together at ITHR Bucharest during 1985-1989. Its "specialty" is the cultural, historical circuit for which it is appreciated. The 10 charters we organize annually are growing and diversifying. Today, the company invests online, in on-line sales and in the currencies that it allows you. The Internet does not compete if it is well-used, it is an extremely good tool, obviously if you know how to use it. Many people make reservations today on the internet, for a hotel or for a flight. Group circuits and charter holidays will never disappear.

In 2014, Paravion migrated from Happy Tour online business to OTA, an online agency, an independent and strategic business for the GED investment fund, the owner of Happy Tour and Paravion. Such increases, almost impossible in the case of traditional travel agencies, have become a habit when it comes to travel portals. More and more tourists buy airline tickets or online holidays, and the main beneficiaries are these companies. Vola.ro, for example, announced, three years ago, that over the past five years it has increased its business by more than 50 times.

The Clariya Morariu family, which owns the Eximtur travel agency, the third-largest player on the industry-wide basis for business estimates for 2008, expects a stagnation in sales in 2009 after more than five years of continued business growth. Thus, Eximtur faces the first difficult year after 2000, as between 2004-2008 the company came from businesses worth 14.2 million euros and 56 employees at a turnover of 40 million euros and 134 employees. The agency does not plan new hiring or opening its own agencies this year, but is considering more strategies to ensure a turnover similar to the 2008 level in the context that the tourism services market is expected to be affected 2009 due to the international situation. For 2017, Eximtur estimates the same turnover as last year, respectively 40 million euros. It is a prudent scenario that takes into account the current situation in the tourist services market. The Eximtur representative considers the tourism services market could record drops of up to 15% compared to 2008, taking into account the international situation. According to the National Association of Tourism Agencies of Romania (ANAT), 2017 could still increase by about 5% in terms of the number of Romanian tourists traveling abroad, which is four times higher Reduced compared to what happened in 2016.

Travel agency Christian Tour, the largest charter operator in Romania, controlled by the Pandel family, reached a turnover of 46 million euros in the first semester, up 25% over the same period of the previous year. The best-selling holidays were in destinations such as Antalya, the island of Crete, the island of Corfu in Greece, Palma de Mallorca in Spain and Zakynthos in Greece, according to the company's representative. Only to Turkey, the agency has 16 weekly charter flights to Antalya and Bodrum, departing from Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Timisoara, Iasi and Craiova plus a charter bus to Kusadasi, Bodrum, Marmaris.

Established in 2001 under the name of ATLANTIC TURISM COMPANY SRL in Brasov and becoming PERFECT TOUR SRL Bucharest (CUI: 14241637) in 2004, this company has been active in and known in the field of tourism as the PERFECT TOUR Agency (at least until 2015).

Happy Tour, who led the tourism market by 2012, went down a downward slope in the past two years. The Happy Tour boss puts the decline on the exchange rate and the fact that he pays the employees on a workbook, claims that stir up competing travel agencies, who say they also use the same exchange rate and pay, but they have different advantages.

The EUROLINES Group, which includes 20 companies in Romania, Germany and the Republic of Moldova, recorded a 17% increase in sales in 2015 compared to 2014.

In 2016, the strategy of the Eurolines Group focuses on strengthening business lines, market leadership, and developing business online. Eurolines Romania ended the year 2015 with a sales figure of 492 million RON. The group has been present on the Romanian market for over 20 years. In 2011, he entered into a strategic partnership with TUI Travel PLC, becoming the representative of the TUI TravelCenter brand in Romania.

Market shares of agencies

In CAEN code 7912- Activities of tour operators, the market share of the agencies is the following:

Parallel 45- 0.01%

Paravion – 0.54%

Eximtur- 1.21%

Mare- 1.76%

Christian Tour- 1.97%

Perfect Tour- 1.11%

HappyTour- 1.11%

Eurolines- 2.21%

Klever Travel- 0%

Europabus- 5.69%

Danubius Travel- 0%

Amarino- 0.14%

Although there are tourist signs since the appearance of the first local tourist promotion entities – such as Palma de Mallorca or San Sebastian – and some isolated example of cartel related to other countries such Spain as a whole.

1.2 Sanctions and fines

Investigation

The Competition Council has carried out unannounced inspections at the headquarters and points of work of several active companies on the tourism services market, and the documents raised during these inspections are in the analysis of the Romanian competition authority in the specific investigation procedures. The competition authority suspects travel agencies to coordinate their commercial policies with a view to imposing a minimum selling price for tourist products and / or tourist packages and maintaining a status quo on the market from 2013 onwards. This is the first investigation triggered by the competition authority following information received through an anonymous notification filed on the Platform of Complainants. This platform is an instrument that ensures the anonymity of people who want to communicate to the Competition Council information about the cartel activities of some companies.

Unannounced inspections are a preliminary step in procedures to investigate possible anticompetitive behavior. Carrying out these inspections is not a precursor to the Competition Council as to the guiltyness of the companies investigated, nor to the final outcome of the investigation.

Fines

In the case of cartels, account shall be taken of the gravity of the offense, the duration and the existence of any aggravating circumstances. Account should also be taken of market share and size to ensure adequate fines and an inhibiting effect on such practices. Therefore, the amount of the fine is not determined solely by the size of the turnover, but as a general rule, the amount of the fine can never be more than 10% of the company's annual turnover.

These big companies in torusim have agreed to forbid smaller sellers to lower prices below a certain level. If these suspicions prove correct, it would be a violation of the law. We conducted inspections in 12 companies, both in Bucharest and in the country. Most companies are members of ANAT. If the suspicions prove to be correct, the law allows for fines of up to 10% of the turnover for the previous year, and for an agreement between competing companies, what we call the Cartel, sanctions are close to maximum limit.

1.3 Impact on the consumer

Pro and vice versa

Former European Commissioner for Competition Mario Monti has explicitly stated that "the purpose of competition policy in all its aspects is to protect consumer welfare"

ANAT Board of Directors

ANAT is the Board of Directors ' association of tourism agencies in Romania and has as active members about 500 travel agencies, the most important in the country, which accumulates over 85% of the sales of travel packages and travel services. The ANAT member agencies together have over 5,000 employees and cumulative sales of approximately 1 billion euros. At present there are over 2,000 travel agencies on the Romanian market. The market is dominated by companies such as the National Association of Tourism Agencies (ANAT) that, following the investigation by the Competition Council, its members never participated in anticompetitive agreements and hopes that the authorities will find solutions to reduce the number of Bankruptcy among travel agencies. The National Association of Tourism Agencies and its members have always acted in the spirit of a strong competitive environment and have never participated in anti-competitive agreements, the verification started by the Competition Council, giving us the opportunity to prove this.

ANAT's management also states that it hopes that ANAT, the Competition Council and the other responsible state institutions will identify the optimal model of criteria for setting up and running a travel agency, as well as the "necessary model for the full insurance of the money paid by Customers for ordered travel services to protect the interests of tourists' consumers. The ANAT Association, together with the members they represent, declares their full readiness to clarify the issues verified by the Competition Council and to further clarify the specificity of the activity of the touristic and detailist travel agencies in Romania, the European Union and Outside the borders of the European Union.

Concerning the press release of the Competition Council, the ANAT Board of Directors makes the following remarks:

– The ANAT Association, together with the members they represent, declare their full readiness to clarify the issues verified by the Competition Council and to further clarify the specificity of the activity of the touristic and detailist travel agencies in Romania, the European Union and Outside the borders of the European Union

– In addition to the aspects discussed, we are also concerned with other issues meant to lead to the establishment in Romania of a truly efficient and competitive tourism market, able to provide consumers with quality services in a sustainable manner.

– The ANAT Association also wants to identify solutions to reduce the number of bankruptcy by travel agencies, which is to the benefit of consumers of tourism products in Romania, consumers in whose support the Competition Council

– In this respect, members hope that the ANAT association, together with the Competition Council and the other responsible state institutions, will identify the optimal model of criteria necessary for the establishment and functioning of a travel agency, as well as the necessary model for the full insurance of the paid money Customers for the ordered travel services, to protect the interests of the tourists, but also to support the specific activity of the fairly paying tourist agencies in Romania

– The National Association of Tourism Agencies and its members have always acted in the spirit of a strong competitive environment and have never participated in anti-competitive agreements, the verification initiated by the Competition Council, giving us the opportunity to prove this.

Consumers / Customers

The negative impact of cartel arrangements also materializes in:

artificial limitation of competition;

rising prices;

avoiding constraints that generate innovation (eg, developing a product or introducing more efficient production methods);

Restriction of employment opportunities.

Competition policy pursues the following objectives regarding the consumers/ customers in order to reduce negative impact of anticompetitive strategy:

Increasing consumer welfare by improving economic performance;

Consumer protection (protecting them from the big companies' tendencies to seize markets and set monopoly prices)

Raising the quality of products and services offered to consumers

Establishing real price levels

Stop revenue redistribution in favor of monopolies and cartels;

Protecting small and medium-sized businesses;

Eliminating businesses that do not have the capacity to adapt to environmental requirements

Integration of national markets in states into a single market of the European community.

In this respect, one may observe different effects of tourism cartel. If the cartel can at least exploit his situation, it depends on the shape of the demand for the commodity curve and the cost of producing the marginal unit of commodity on the existing scale of production. Only when the conditions are such that the sale of a smaller quantity at higher prices produces a net profit higher than the sale of a larger quantity at lower prices, it is possible to apply the principle specific to the policy. But even then, it is applied only if the cartel in tourism finds no way to secure even greater benefits. The cartel in tourism serves his best interests if it can separate buyers into classes by their purchasing power because he can then exploit the purchasing power of each class and get the highest prices from their members. Railways and other transport companies, which set their rates according to what customers will be, are in this class. If, following the general method of cartel, they would treat uniformly all those who use the transport, those less able to pay would be excluded from transport, and for those able to withstand higher prices, transport would be cheaper . The effect of this process on the local distribution of the industry is clear: among the factors determining the location of the individual industries, the transport factor would be felt otherwise.

Examining the economic effect of the cartel in tourism, one must limit the investigation to the type that restricts the production of its commodity. Now the result of this constraint is not that it is produced less quantitatively. Capital and labor, released by the restriction of production, must find use in other productions. For, in the long run, there is no untapped capital or unused labor in the free economy. Thus, in comparison with the smaller production of monopolized goods, we must put the increased production of other goods. But these, of course, are less important goods that would not have been produced and consumed if the higher demand for a larger quantity of the monopolized commodity could have been met. The difference between the value of these goods and the higher value of unproduced monopolized commodities is the loss of welfare the cartel has imposed on the national economy. Here, private profit and social productivity are in disagreement. A socialist society in such circumstances would act differently than a capitalist one.

It has often been revealed that although cartel may prove harmful to the consumer, it may, on the other hand, be turned to its advantage. A cartel in tourism could give cheaper services because it eliminates all competition spending and because, being adapted to large-scale operations, it enjoys all the advantages of the division of labor. But this does not in any way change the fact that cartel diverts production from more important products to less important ones. It may, as one likes to repeat the trustees' defense, as the cartel, unable to increase its benefits otherwise, strive to improve the production technique, but it is hard to understand why the impetus for it is greater than the competitor.

Therefore, the international context is undergoing a process of transformation, under the influence of several factors, a foresight of the future architecture being difficult to outline.

In addition to cooperative and non-cooperative games in tourism it is possible to apply "one-shot" or "repetitive" games and, moreover, to distinguish between simultaneous and sequenced games. Under certain conditions, firms, knowing the illegality of cartels in some countries, may initially have a non-cooperative strategy, and then a behavior that will lead to silent cartels. For example, keep high prices knowing that rivals will do the same. "One-shot" games apply in situations where all decisions are taken once, for example, to make a capital investment for a new product or barriers to entry. Conversely, repetitive games are indicated in cases where the best idea is to gain short-term benefits. For example, pricing and product differentiation strategies can change frequently, so rival firms regularly engage in noncompetitive games. There are situations in tourism where this is happening: airlines, ferryboats and tour operators that engage in price wars to increase their market share and differentiating their products are in an attempt to expand their market or to serve a new customer segment.

Certain subsectors of tourist offer are organized in oligopolies and, therefore, strategies are common in pricing, bidding, product differentiation and marking, market segmentation, advertising, innovation and barriers to entry. In addition, it is possible to take into account the circumstances in which a key firm can exercise a dominant strategy, perhaps due to its particular attributes, such as the brand name, offering an optimal strategy, independent of that of rivals. In order to illustrate the application of the game theory in tourism, one may accentuate the case of advertising, pricing decisions and the construction of barriers to entry – which tour operators might face. The first element presents the non-competitive and simultaneous game of the impact of advertising on the size and market share; second, price setting is an example of a non-cooperative and repetitive game, the third one is a "one-shot" and non-cooperative game. The second and third game shows the possible outcomes of cooperative behavior.

In the case of the cartel (cooperative oligopoly), on the basis of an estimate of total demand, a formal understanding between firms in tourism is made on price and market sharing. Agreements between cartel members are quite fragile, the danger of collapsing coming from two directions:

1) The temptation to compete is often so strong that sooner or later one or other of the partners will no longer act appropriately on agreed price or quantity quantities; From the moment when the individual interest begins to prevail over the common one, the desire of the companies to increase their production will lead to the price reduction and the dismantling of the cartel that will become a monopoly;

2) In order to benefit from some of the advantages created by the cartel, competitors outside it will want to associate, thus undermining the cohesion of the initial partners.

The maximum form of understanding, which maximizes the benefits of tourism oligopolists, is the cartel, an agreement between all industry producers, which can take the following forms:

Competition without prices. Each company tries to improve quality, presentation or any other factor, but respecting the agreed price.

Market shares. Each company in tourism is given an area where it can sell a service, and a maximum production that can not be exceeded.

Another additional difficulty comes from the fact that the legislation of many countries prohibits the practices of agreements and on certain occasions have been able to demonstrate and punish certain industries for making proposals and pressures of this kind.

Another additional difficulty comes from the fact that the laws of many countries prohibit the practices of agreements and on certain occasions have been able to demonstrate and punish certain industries for making such proposals and pressures.

The best alternative to the cartel, which avoids all these inconveniences, is price supremacy. This is a very common situation in the business world. When there is a leading market, setting the price and supply conditions that are accepted by everyone else without the need to negotiate. There are three types of companies that can enroll:

The dominant enterprise in tourism sector is the one with the largest size, while the highest share of participation is different from each other. This will be the one that will have the most information, the one who knows the conditions of the large scale application will be able to estimate the most stable and advantageous price.

The one that benefits from lower costs has the most advanced technology. This case results to be more stable if the pricing company is one that practices high costs, the price would also be too high, and the situation would be more likely to distort a price war. In tourism, one company enjoys prestige and social respect. It is common for an oligopolist to be considered by his or her expert and capable to diagnose the changing conditions of demand by their age or formation and they will accept their decisions. In any case, these agreements are always fragile and fragile, because if any of the members betray others, it can get big benefits.

The principle of the leading price, which at first sight should not be included in the class of agreements, is still a form of manifestation of imperfect competition in which a large-scale undertaking fixes the selling price and the other companies keep it in full freedom of choice of the product, promotional activity of sales, use of distribution channels, etc. If the commodity is homogeneous, the price fixed by the large enterprise will be the same for all. If, on the other hand, the product is differentiated, prices will be different, but they will be gravitated in the same direction, so that price differences between businesses remain unaltered.

In the early years of the 20th century, the German government, to boost exports, encouraged national companies to join the cartels. After the First World War, the number of cartels increased, reaching 200 international cartels at the start of the Second World War. They controlled 30% of world trade in industries such as rubber, chemicals, steel, and tin.

A common way to solve the problem is that of inter-enterprise agreements. The practice has highlighted two types of more important understandings: the cartel and the principle of the leading price, both widely studied by American economist W. Fellner.

With the adoption of competition law and its protection in developed, market-economy countries, cartels, the most common form of co-operative oligopoly, have become illegal.

But not all over the world, sometimes even supported by governments. So, while in the United States they are illegal, national cartels are common in Japan where businesses are running under a controlled competition system. (Dudian, 2001, p.86)

To discover these practices considered illegal, many countries apply the leniency policy. By this method, economic agents involved in cartels, who decide to put an end to these practices and provide essential evidence, can benefit from immunity or reduced sanction.

Although in Romania there has been no return, positive results have been recorded in many countries. In the Netherlands, for example, in one semester the authorities received 470 complaints.

If the agreement consists in sharing quota, no enterprise will be satisfied with what is attributed, they all want to produce more. If what is being attempted is to set a common price, the most efficient enterprises, those with advanced technology that can afford to produce at a lower cost, will put pressure on the price down, while the least effective will be partisans at a high price. Due to the difficulty of these negotiations, once agreement is reached, there will be some rigidity, it will be difficult to change agreements to adapt to changing market conditions. Another additional difficulty comes from the fact that the laws of many countries prohibit the practices of agreements and on certain occasions have been able to demonstrate and punish certain industries for making such proposals and pressures.

The long-term effects of such practices are reflected in competitiveness in the sector. Under the terms of a cartel, companies no longer have to withstand the pressure exerted by the competition when they should normally struggle to maintain a place on the market, through innovation and more efficient activity. The positive effects of such a practice are only enjoyed by the participants, but they do not transfer any of these benefits to the economic sectors linked to the market affected by the cartel or end-users. For these reasons, cartels are considered to be the most serious infringements of competition law and are, as a rule, prohibited by competition law in all market-economy countries.

FINAL REFLECTIONS

This section does not seek to give policy recommendations to carry forward but to give ways of reflection with the aim that the actors can know part of the reality of the sector and complement with information that surely has not been sufficiently analyzed in this document. We believe that the objective of this work is to identify the sector's strengths and weaknesses and it is necessary to work much more in the definition and delimitation of a tourism strategy for the country, considering the impacts and effects that certain actions in the short and long-term could place tourism in an axis of dynamism for the rest of the economy, relating economic, social and environmental aspects. This involves defining what type of tourism we want, who we participate and how we commit, which in this sense is a long way to go.

The dynamics of the tourism sector in Romania is historically related to the European economy. The future challenges are related to:

1) resizing this dependency by reducing and / or keeping up with the negative cycles of the region with policies aimed at strengthening joint measures within the European Union framework.

2) to increase the participation of visitors from the region and extra-regional visitors whose secondary destination would be Romania.

3) strengthen and integrate the other products unlike sun and beach with the aim of balancing the strong seasonality of visitors, taking advantage of the qualitative differences of security, friendliness, own culture, environmental quality and natural resources.

4) strengthening public management and linking with other sectors of the economy in the search for quality of services and conservation of the natural heritage;

5) Greater vertical and horizontal integration in investment, credit and human capital formation policies.

The final reflections on the competitiveness of tourism in Romania and that we develop in terms of ideas to be managed in broader forums start from the analysis of the weaknesses classified in conjuncture, structural and institutional and framed in lines of work that could be considered as policies on short, medium and long term.

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