COMPETITIVENESS ATTRIBUTES FOR CONSERVATION AREAS AS A TOURIST ATTRACTION: STRUCTURE FOR ANALYSIS AND STRATEGIC GUIDANCE IN MOZAMBIQUE
Although the competitiveness of tourist destinations has gained prominence among the themes that make up the agendas of academics and governments in recent decades, generating the proposition of robust reference models and contributing to their definition and theoretical delimitation, when transported to the field of application to different contexts, or that of a specific tourist attraction, as is the case of Conservation Units (UCs), require the adaptation of their criteria and attributes to the specificities of the attraction itself. In order to contribute to this adequacy, this research is concerned with the proposition of a reference structure to analyze the competitiveness of conservation units as tourist attractions, capable of capturing both conditioning attributes of the already consolidated competitiveness for destinations, as well as those that may translate the context and specificities of the tourist attraction UCs. The research is conducted using a mixed methodology tha t consists of document analysis, qualitative interviews with PA managers and legislators, combined with the perceptions of PA users in Mozambique. Additional analyzes will be performed on raw data from governmental and institutional sources to support or contrast the conclusions drawn from the empirical research. With the results, it is expected to expand knowledge about the specificities of conservation units as an attraction capable of contributing to the competitiveness of destinations, as well as providing managers with an analysis tool that allows them to make more accurate decisions in terms of increment and qualification. of its local attractions to face global competitiveness.