THE IMPACT OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION ON INTERNATIONAL TOURISM COMPETITIVENESS: A STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK FOR DESTINATION GROWTH

Digital transformation has significantly reshaped the global tourism industry, influencing how destinations compete, attract visitors, and deliver experiences. This study examines how digital technologies, especially online travel platforms, data-driven strategies, and smart tourism systems affect international tourism competitiveness. Tourism is widely recognized as an early adopter of digitization (e.g., flight and hotel bookings moving online), making the competitive effects of digitization especially pronounced in tourism markets. Digital platformization has altered tourism distribution and value capture, while “smart tourism” foundations emphasize the use of ICT, data, and connectivity to create new visitor value propositions. By integrating strategic management theory (resource-based view and competitive forces) with destination competitiveness perspectives and global benchmarking indicators such as ICT-related pillars included in the Travel & Tourism Development Index the paper proposes a strategic framework for destination growth in the digital era. Platforms such as Booking.com and Airbnb illustrate how digital intermediaries can transform visibility, market access, pricing dynamics, and capacity management, while also introducing dependency and governance challenges. The findings suggest that destinations adopting coherent digital transformation strategies can strengthen competitiveness through improved distribution reach, enhanced experience design, better decision-making, and more adaptive governance but only when digital investments are paired with institutional capacity, trust mechanisms, and inclusive innovation ecosystems.