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Tourist dependent small towns: Understanding competitive advantage

University of South Carolina, 2026E Coliseum, Columbia, SC 29208, USA, runyanrc{at}sc.edu

This study explores the resources that two distinctly different types of downtown business districts use to gain competitive advantage. Specifically, 267 respondents in four tourist dependent and seven non-dependent small downtowns were surveyed regarding the use of brand image and positioning, as well as business diversity and magnet stores within each respective downtown. T-tests were utilized to determine differences between downtown types, while multiple regression was used to determine which of the four constructs contributed to downtown performance. Analyses indicated that tourist dependent downtowns rated use of brand image, positioning, and business mix significantly higher than non-tourist dependent downtowns, while non-tourist downtowns rated magnet stores as more important to their downtown’s success. Regression analyses found that for both types of downtowns, image was a strong indicator of performance, while business diversity was an indicator for tourist dependent downtowns only. Managerial and research implications are provided to ground these findings in practice.

Key Words: branding • business mix • image • positioning • tourism

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