ATTRACTION DIVERSITY INDEX: THE CONCEPT, MEASURE, AND ITS RELATION WITH TOURISM DESTINATION COMPETITIVENESS

Abstract

Traditionally, economists have attempted to develop indices that measure industry concentration and such indices have become the basis of considerable antitrust litigations. The inverse of industry concentration can give valuable managerial clues about industry diversity and competition. In this paper, we extrapolate these ideas and develop the blueprint for Attraction Diversity Index (ADI), which is conceived as a measure of the diversity of attraction types in a destination area. We also propose its inverse, Attraction Cluster Equity (ACE). In order to demonstrate the usefulness of these indices, some hypotheses linking ADI-ACE with related constructs in destination marketing are proposed and tested.