OBELS WORKING PAPER NO.2
DECEMBER 2013
A Preliminary Study of Tourism Competitiveness in Thailand: An Approach to Revealed Comparative Advantage Index Thanasin Tanompongphandh Nathapornpan Uttama Thidarat Buadapthip Abstract This study aims to explore tourism competitiveness in Thailand and Asian countries. The revealed comparative advantage (RCA) measure is employed to analyze the comparative advantage in travel services as a proxy for tourism competitiveness. Using World Databank, the findings reveal that during 2009 to 2010, China performs a high ranking in travel service export with high positive normalized RCA. Comparing with ASEAN countries, from 2009 and 2010, Thailand has the highest ranking in travel services; meanwhile, Malaysia has strong comparative advantage performance in travel services, with a high NRCA ranking. However, it found that Lao PDR and Myanmar have weak competitive performance in travel services. Keywords: Tourism, Competitiveness, Revealed comparative advantage JEL Classifications: F10, F14, C33
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A Preliminary Study of Tourism Competitiveness in Thailand
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