413 Tourism Analysis, Vol. 19, pp. 413–424 1083-5423/14 $60.00 + .00 Printed in the USA. All rights reserved. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3727/108354214X14090817030991 Copyright Ó 2014 Cognizant Comm. Corp. E-ISSN 1943-3999 www.cognizantcommunication.com Address correspondence to Dr. Andreas H. Zins, Professor of Tourism Management, Department of Tourism and Service Management, MODUL University Vienna, Am Kahlenberg 1, A-1190 Vienna, Austria. Tel: +43-1-3203555-800; E-mail: andreas.zins@modul.ac.at in many other management areas, top-level out- put indicators cannot be used directly for diag- nosing the strategic and operative strengths and weaknesses. (3) Tourism comprises and involves a bundle of different sectors and industries so that performance ratios for the accommodation sector only do not reflect the situation of this economic and social activity comprehensively. First, this study reviews briefly the major con- ceptual developments in the area of destination benchmarking and competitiveness studies. This lays the foundations for the proprietary instrument INTERNAL BENCHMARKING FOR REGIONAL TOURISM ORGANIZATIONS: A CASE EXAMPLE ANDREAS H. ZINS Department of Tourism and Service Management, MODUL University Vienna, Vienna, Austria During the past 20 years destination management has changed substantially towards more profes- sionalism and goal orientation. Organizations such as the OECD and WTO as well as academia contributed with developing frameworks for assessing competitiveness and applying benchmarking processes at national and regional levels. However, continuous and systematic benchmarking for des- tination management has not been applied on a wider scale. This article reports on the development of an internal monitoring and benchmarking tool for a European destination at NUTS-III level that aims at overcoming prevailing weaknesses of existing instruments (e.g., lack of data, bias towards overnight tourism, limited involvement of appropriate stakeholders). The current system, called Tourism Sensor ® , was set up in 2010 and repeated 2 years later. Results show, as expected, changes particularly where strategy implementation steps have been taken. Ratios also highlight sensitive areas where internal tourism management activities should be channeled in the near future. Key words: Balanced scorecard; Managerial judgments; Destination marketing/management organization (DMO); Strategy congruence Introduction Qualifying success of a tourism destination by simply considering bednights sold or occupancy ratios of the accommodation sector is running short of the diverse interests and necessities of the stakeholders of a destination. This is the case for at least three major reasons. (1) The goal hierar- chy that a destination and/or destination marketing/ management organization (DMO) has to subscribe to is sometimes not transparent and in many cases not without conflicts and contradictions. (2) Like