The competitiveness of tourism destinations is a key issue because it enables destinations to know
their position with regard to their competitors. The aim of this paper is threefold: (1) to address
the measurement of the competitiveness of tourism destinations at the regional level, (2) to show
the suitability of using multi-criteria techniques to measure competitiveness, and (3) to apply the
PROMETHEE and GAIA methods within a competitiveness study of eight tourist destinations
located in the Northern Region of Portugal. The Metropolitan Area of Porto is the first in the
ranking, followed by Cávado and Douro. The results of such an analysis show the comparative
strengths and weaknesses of destinations, and allow them to identify their true competitors as
well as those other destinations that are most similar to them
