GLOBAL COMPETITIVE POSITIONING OF UZBEKISTAN’S TOURISM SECTOR: A DISTANCE-TO-FRONTIER DIAGNOSIS ACROSS THIRTEEN DEVELOPMENT PILLARS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21030112Abstract
Aggregate competitiveness rankings indicate a destination’s overall standing, but not where, and by how
much, it falls short of attainable global performance. This study applies a distance-to-frontier methodology to position
Uzbekistan’s tourism sector against the global best-in-class on each of the thirteen Travel and Tourism Development Index
pillars, using Uzbekistan’s 2024 global ranks and pillar indices benchmarked against the highest-scoring economy on every
pillar. Uzbekistan attains an overall index of 3.76 (global rank: 78), but the pillar-level diagnosis reveals that its largest
absolute distances from the frontier are observed mainly in the resource-related and tourism-service pillars: the gap to
the frontier is widest for cultural resources (3.19 points, versus Italy), natural resources (3.03, versus Mexico), and touristservice
infrastructure (2.80, versus Cyprus). Conversely, the smallest distances arise in human resources, environmental
sustainability, and price competitiveness, where the global frontier itself is comparatively compressed. The analysis
reframes the competitiveness agenda from closing relative peer gaps to valorizing underexploited resource endowments
and upgrading service infrastructure toward attainable international benchmarks, and it supplies a transparent, pillarspecific
target-setting instrument.
Keywords
tourism competitiveness; distance to frontier; benchmarking; TTDI; global ranking; UzbekistanReferences
Benchmarking Uzbekistan against the global best-in-class on each of thirteen competitiveness pillars
converts a middling aggregate rank into a precise, actionable diagnosis. The country’s largest attainable
improvements lie not where its relative rank is merely poor, but where its absolute distance to the frontier
is widest — on cultural resources, natural resources and tourist-services infrastructure, each more than
two-and-a-half index points below the world leader. The divergence between relative rank and absolute
distance from the frontier cautions against complacency on nominal strengths such as safety and price,
where the frontier remains distant. By ordering pillars in a priority map of current level against improvement
headroom, the distance-to-frontier framework supplies Uzbekistan with transparent, pillar-specific and
internationally anchored targets for its tourism-competitiveness strategy.
2. Foundational and applied contributions to destination-competitiveness measurement further underpin the
present framework, including [13], [14] and [15].
3. The study’s quantitative orientation is additionally informed by the tourism demand-forecasting literature,
notably [16].
4. The wider literature on tourism-led growth, economic contribution and sector resilience also frames this
study, including [17] and [18].
5. Evidence on the infrastructure–tourism relationship also bears on the analysis, including [19].
6. Research on tourism sustainability and smart, digital destination development likewise informs this study,
including [20].
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