Tourism sector competitiveness in central Portugal following the 2017 forest and rural fires: evaluating the situation and its future implications

Abstract

With the tourism sector playing an extremely relevant role as a tool for competitiveness and a driver of regional development and with tourist destinations facing increasing numbers of events beyond their control and potentially compromising their competitive and comparative advantages, it thus becomes pertinent to examine the ways in which the forest and rural fires of 2017 impacted on the competitiveness of the Centro Tourism Region. To this end, we applied a quantitative methodology with secondary data that enabled us to ascertain the burned area in each council, the influence on tourist numbers in the region during and after the natural disaster as well as any losses in regional competitiveness. The conclusions returned enabled the affirmation of this region’s strong comparative and competitive advantages that ensured the minimisation of the risk of losing tourism sector competitiveness.