BENCHMARKING AND QUALITY MANAGING OF TOURIST DESTINATIONS

In an icreasingly competitive environment for organisations, a self-evaluating process is one of the greatest challenges for management. One such strategy is benchmarking - "see what others are doing in order to be the best". Instead of their own approaches to problems, numerous companies opt for benchmarking methods to improve their performances. Complexity and significance of defining term - quality in tourism - points out the necessity of permanent monitoring of market trends. This includes, at the same time, necessity of permanent comparison with the main competitors on tourist market - that is, in fact, benchmarking process. Literature relative to benchmarking models in tourism is divided into two main groups: hotel models and destination models, that are the subject of this paper. Monitoring tourists perceptions of competitive performance is very important in assesing and comparing destinations. Thus, the benchmarking models, based on tourist satisfaction is specially focused in this paper, as the crucial tools for total quality management of tourist destinations.