Identifying and Prioritizing International Tour Leaders’ Core Competencies for Strategic Competitive Advantage in the Tourism Industry

In the competitive tourism industry, international tour leaders play an important role in shaping tourist experiences and supporting organizational competitiveness. Drawing upon the Resource-Based View (RBV), this study aims to identify and prioritize the core competencies of international tour leaders that may contribute to strategic competitive advantage in tourism organizations. A mixed-method exploratory approach integrating the Delphi technique and the Best – Worst Method (BWM) was employed. In the first phase, tourism and hospitality experts participated in multiple Delphi rounds to identify the most important competencies required for international tour leaders. In the second phase, the identified competencies were prioritized using BWM based on expert evaluations. The findings indicate that communication skills, intercultural competence, leadership ability, crisis management, and problem-solving skills are among the most critical competencies. The study provides an RBV-based framework for identifying and prioritizing strategically important competencies in the tourism sector. Rather than directly measuring strategic competitive advantage, the study highlights competencies that experts perceive as valuable strategic resources for enhancing long-term competitiveness in tourism organizations.