Improving strategic diagnoses

This paper proposes a strategic diagnosis framework, derived from the resource-based view, in order to help tourism destinations mutate into sustainable development ventures. A resource-based approach points towards defining a tourism destination as a set of productive and human, tangible and intangible resources, which can generate sustained competitive advantages. In that respect, the first stage of a strategic diagnosis should be to identify and to classify a destination’s strategic resources. Thanks to the literature and to the observation of three European destinations located on the Mediterranean Sea, three criteria for a typology of resources are proposed: their sustainability dimension, their attractiveness for tourists and their inherited or created nature. The research produces a resource-based strategic diagnosis method that will help destination leaders identify the strategic assets and the path dependency of the destinations they manage. They can then define strategic options, improving both competitiveness and sustainability