Dimensions of destination competitiveness: Analyses of protected areas in Spain Lidia Blanco-Cerradelo * , Ana Gueimonde-Canto, Jos  e Antonio Fraiz-Brea, M. Isabel Di  eguez-Castrill  on Business Administration and Tourism School, University of Vigo, Campus As Lagoas, 32004, Ourense, Spain article info Article history: Available online 29 December 2017 Keywords: Destination attractiveness Destination competitiveness Protected area Quality of life Tourist sustainability abstract There is a large volume of literature focusing on the factors determining the competitiveness of tourist destinations. Nevertheless, research delving deep into the dimensions comprising tourist competitive- ness is still scarce; even more so when it comes to the competitiveness of specific types of destinations. In this contribution we tackle the conceptualization and measurement of the tourist competitiveness of protected areas, a specific type of destinations enjoying not just intrinsic, but even exceptional, features. More precisely, the topics of our research are as follows: to comprehend the notion of tourist compet- itiveness in the aforementioned type of territories, to identify the appropriate measuring scales, to establish the dimensions of the construct, and to characterize the relations existing among the latter dimensions. In order to do so we analyze a sample of 102 protected areas in Spain (National Parks, Natural Parks, and Biosphere Reserves). The results obtained entitle us to assert that the tourist competitiveness of protected areas is comprised of five dimensions significantly and positively related, to wit: (1) their capability to attract visitors, (2) the social welfare of the local community, and, tourist sustainability related with (3) the preservation of nature, (4) the creation of a sense of community, (5) the economic welfare of the local community. Since we also assert that in protected areas the maximization of attractiveness is compatible with, and even requires, pursuing the community's welfare and cohesion together with environmental sustainability, our study impinges on the management of tourist destina- tions by highlighting the need to consider jointly all five competitiveness dimensions. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The growth of competitiveness among tourist destinations has become a notable phenomenon in the last decades, much in simultaneity with the emergence of new destinations with dif- ferential features. This is the case of protected areas. The rise of such areas worldwide, the steadily increasing number of tourists that feel attracted by them, and the importance of environmental protection, alongside an enhanced awareness on the part of the population regarding this topic, are all factors leading to the higher significance that these spaces are enjoying as tourist destinations. The consolidation of protected areas as tourist destinations, together with the acknowledgment that what is at stake therein is nothing less than a competitive and distinguished type of tourism that allows for the enhancement of the quality of life (QoL) of the local population, has motivated an increasing effort to implement management strategies encompassing the social, the economic, and the environmental. A number of theoretical models tackling the analysis of the competitiveness of tourist destinations can already be found in the realm of academic literature, most significantly from the 1990s onwards. Among them, we would like to draw attention to those focusing on the theorization and the development of models of destination competitiveness (Crouch and Ritchie, 1999; Cvelbar et al., 2016; Dwyer and Kim, 2003; Gooroochurn and Sugiyarto, 2005; Heath, 2002; Hong, 2009; Kim, 2000; Navickas and Malakauskaite, 2009; Ritchie and Crouch, 2000, 2003) and also to those concerned with the assessment of the competitive posi- tioning of a destination (Armenski et al., 2017; De Keyser and Vanhove, 1994; Enright and Newton, 2004, 2005; Faulkner et al., 1999; Gomezelj and Mihali c, 2008; Kim and Dwyer, 2003; Kozak and Rimmington, 1999; Pearce, 1997). * Corresponding author. E-mail address: lyblanco@uvigo.es (L. Blanco-Cerradelo). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Cleaner Production journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jclepro https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.12.242 0959-6526/© 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Journal of Cleaner Production 177 (2018) 782e794