Assessment of the Impact of External Factors on the Competitiveness of Tourist Enterprises | Оценка на влиянието на външните фактори за конкурентоспособност на туристическите предприятия

External factors are influencing directly the competitiveness and the competitive potential of a company. The study of the influence of external factors on the competitiveness allows the assessment of the state of the environment, the creation of objective forecasts for the changes in the conditions and factors, future opportunities and threats to this environment and their potential impact on the development of the enterprise. The analysis and the evaluation of the scope and sustainability of the influence of external factors is a condition for the formulation of an adequate competitive strategy of a company. In this context, the objective of the study is to conduct an empirical study and evaluate the impact of external factors on the competitiveness of tourist enterprises located on the territory of South-West Region of Bulgaria. To achieve the objective of the study an approach and methodology for statistical characterizing of the impact of external factors for the competitiveness of enterprises are applied based on data from surveys. In order to gather the necessary primary empirical information for achieving the goals of the project a survey has been conducted for the period January - February 2014. The participants in the survey are 157 tourist enterprises from South- West Region of Bulgaria. In the course of gathering information, representatives of the management of those companies were surveyed (owners, co-owners, directors, managers. The survey covers a period of three consecutive years 2011-2013. Conclusions are drawn on the basis of the results of the empirical study. The grading of the influence of the internal factors of competitiveness are relatively low and indicate sharp deviations in different directions in the years 2011-2013, changing significantly in a positive direction during 2012 and insignificantly in a negative direction during 2013. The normalization of the grades for 2013 indicates an increase in terms of the one-dimensional signs, connected to the demand of the internal tourist market and the increased competition of the market.