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Measurement of the international tourism competitiveness. Biases in the executive opinion survey of the travel and tourism competitiveness index of the World Economic Forum

Publicated to:International Journal Of Scientific Management And Tourism. 3 (2): 299 - 322 - 2017-01-01 3(2), DOI:

Authors: Elisa García Abajo; Pilar Gago de Santos

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Abstract

Since 2007 and every two years, the World Economic Forum publishes an index designed to assess the travel and tourism competitiveness of more than 140 countries. Since then, the index ́s methodology has suffered several changes. In particular, the number of indicators used for the calculation of the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness in 2015 was increased to 90 while data derived from the Executive Opinion Survey was reduced significantly. Thus, in the latest Travel & Tourism competitiveness index (TTCI) published in 2015, only one third of the data used in compiling the index were qualitative data drawn from an Executive Opinion Survey, carried out among business executives and business leaders around the world. Survey researchers have long recognized how different ways of wording the same question will affect the answers that people give, especially for opinion questions. This paper analyzes the response bias related to the survey questionnaire of the Executive Opinion Survey used in the calculation of the TTCI. Bias leads to the distortion of the survey results and it can affect the comparability of the results. In our research case, it could affect the final ranking of the TTCI. In particular, our goal is to focus on those biases more relevant in cross-cultural surveys. The main aim of this paper is to describe the type and causes of biases connected with survey questions in order to raise awareness about their existence. Furthermore, it is important to develop mechanisms minimizing such errors, to avoid reaching invalid conclusions. 

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