Perception of Destination Competitiveness of India and Singapore

Academic literature on the tourism industry in India has spanned across several disciplines from the regional as well as the national perspective. As the largest country in terms of size and population in the South Asian region, India has a large influence on the regional tourism industry. India featured prominently in the work of various scholars Reorienting HRD strategies for tourists‟ satisfaction- a study by Nageshwar Rao and R.P. Das (2002) sought to highlight how the Indian Tourism Industry can reorient its HRD strategies in order to satisfy and delight its customers to survive in the global competition. With a better qualified younger workforce occupying the positions in the future and with tremendous opportunities opening for them elsewhere, the key task before the policy makers in organizations is to keep the tourist contact employees satisfied.

“Factors influencing choice of tourist destinations: A study of North India” (2009) is a research paper by Neeraj Kaushik, Jyoti Kaushik, Priyanka Sharma and Savita Rani. This paper attempted to determine the factors responsible for determining the attractiveness of a tourist destination in North India and found that there are seven factors which are considered important by the tourists while selecting their destinations. These factors arecommunication, objectivity, basic facilities, attraction, support services, distinctive local features and psychological and physical environment.

“Tourist satisfaction in Singapore- a perspective from Indonesian tourists” - a study by Theresia A. Pawitra and Kay C. Tan (2001); analyzed the Indonesian tourists‟ satisfaction scores about Singapore and showed that from the „Indonesian tourists‟ point of view , Singapore Tourism Board was successful in promoting and maintaining the performance of the local tourism industry.

There is a significant difference in the perception of tour operators of both the destinations regarding all the attributes of destination competitiveness of India and Singapore. In case of safety and security, maintenance and cleanliness, infrastructure, man made attractions, facilities at tourists spots and behavior of local residents Singapore has better standing in comparison to India in the opinion of tour operators whereas for the attribute of natural resources and information and communication India‟s position is better than Singapore. The price attribute which consisted of six variables was particularly taken in detail as tour operators can best tell the price issues. The findings highlight that there is a significant difference in the perception of tour operators of both the destinations. It is also found that for prices of food, local transportation fare, prices of shopping goods and food and other commodity prices at tourist‟s spots are found to be more reasonable in India as compared to Singapore. However, the prices of accommodation and air fare are more reasonable in Singapore than in India.