Resumo: Understanding the phenomenon of competitiveness in tourism has been subject of academic studies, as well as knowing how to increase it has guided governments and countries actions. This paper has two objectives: (i) provide a systemic approach to competitiveness tourism study in destinations; (ii) to analyze the public management process of 65 Brazilian destinations (covering all the federal units) using a systemic approach. The tourism system is used to understand the functionality of the underlying structure of the elements responsible for the competitiveness of a destination. From this perspective, it is the public sector (in the Brazilian case) the lead manager of the destination with the following functions: to prepare the planning of the destination; to coordinate actions of different actors in order to provide a competitive tourism product; to monitor objectives of the tourism plan, the dimensions of the sustainability of the system and the adequacy of the tourism product in accordance with tourist demand. Through field research, it was investigated the management structures of 65 Brazilian destinations. The results revealed a low capacity for planning and rare monitoring actions for the public policies and for the tourism impacts. It is concluded that the systemic approach incorporated to competitiveness studies can provide tourism managers of a destination dynamic view that allow them to manage in a complex environment of constant changing.
