1. ANALYSIS OF TOURISM COMPETITIVENESS OF THE EUROPEAN UNION AND SOME WESTERN BALKAN COUNTRIES PhD Bojan Krstić, Faculty of Economics, University of Niš PhD Tanja Stanišić, Researcher on the Project 179066 of the Ministry of education, science and technological development of the Republic of Serbia PhD Jelena Petrović, Faculty of Science and Mathematics, University of Niš Synthesis 2015 Paper is a part of research within the project No. 179066 - Improving the competitiveness of the public and private sector by networking competences in the process of the European integrations of Serbia, financed by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia

2. AIM of the research  The paper analyzes the achieved level of tourism competitiveness in the European Union (EU) and certain Western Balkan countries that are not members of the EU (Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro).  Also, the paper analyzed the accommodation capacity, as an important tourism resource, as well as the number of overnight stays of tourists in these countries, as a performance of the tourism sector.  The aim of the paper is to identify the position of the Western Balkan countries that are not yet the members of the EU in terms of competitiveness in tourism, capacity and tourist traffic.

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION  The research results are grouped into three segments:  a) Analysis of competitiveness of the EU and WB countries, according to TTCI;  b) analysis of accommodation capacity and overnight stays by tourists in the EU and WB countries; and  c) Examining the interdependence between tourism competitiveness, accommodation capacities and overnight tourist stay.

4. Analysis of competitiveness of the EU and WB countries according to TTCI Figure 1. The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI)

5. Table 1. Rank and score of TTCI for the EU and WB countries (2013) CountryTTCI rankTTCI scoreCountryTTCI rankTTCI score Austria35.39Lithuania494.39 Belgium185.04Luxembourg234.93 Bulgaria504.38Malta244.92 Croatia354.59Netherlands135.14 Cyprus294.84Poland424.47 Czech Republic314.78Portugal205.01 Denmark214.98Romania684.04 Estonia304.82Slovak Republic544.32 Finland175.10Slovenia364.58 France75.31Spain45.38 Germany25.39Sweden95.24 Greece324.75United Kingdom55.38 Hungary394.51EU average26.94.86 Ireland195.01Macedonia753.98 Italy264.90Montenegro404.50 Latvia484.43Serbia893.78 Source: World Economic Forum. 2013. The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2013, http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_TT_Competitiveness_Report_2013.pdf

6. Analysis of accommodation capacity and overnight stays of tourists in the EU and WB countries Source: Eurostat, http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/tourism/data/database Table 2. Accommodation capacity and overnight stays of tourists in the EU and WB countries (2013) CountryCapacity Overnight stays of tourists CountryCapacity Overnight stays of tourists Austria981,070110,687,373Lithuania69,2876,089,056 Belgium372,86731,448,180Luxembourg66,7472,637,481 Bulgaria302,43321,617,474Malta43,3608,501,147 Croatia867,11064,418,292Netherlands1,404,85296,074,132 Cyprus87,14314,048,529Poland679,44562,959,452 Czech Republic740,67143,308,279Portugal491,09949,888,259 Denmark417,59428,500,837Romania291,24419,301,768 Estonia55,4825,734,033Slovak Republic190,30611,345,641 Finland254,11220,241,057Slovenia105,5599,471,571 France5,049,726403,577,275Spain3,437,362389,211,987 Germany3,481,558354,871,005Sweden805,03349,710,427 Greece1,227,20491,910,642United Kingdom3,464,423303,564,528 Hungary422,03924,426,148EU average 108,177194,035,367 Ireland215,28928,884,907Macedonia42,5421,499,076 Italy4,728,180376,785,615Montenegro149,3489,151,236 Latvia38,4003,775,192Serbia101,7296,368,597

7. Examining interdependence between tourism competitiveness, accommodation capacities and overnight tourist stay Source: Authors' calculation Table 3. The results of correlation analysis CountryCapacity Overnight stays of tourists CountryCapacity Overnight stays of tourists Austria981,070110,687,373Lithuania69,2876,089,056 Belgium372,86731,448,180Luxembourg66,7472,637,481 Bulgaria302,43321,617,474Malta43,3608,501,147 Croatia867,11064,418,292Netherlands1,404,85296,074,132 Cyprus87,14314,048,529Poland679,44562,959,452 Czech Republic740,67143,308,279Portugal491,09949,888,259 Denmark417,59428,500,837Romania291,24419,301,768 Estonia55,4825,734,033Slovak Republic190,30611,345,641 Finland254,11220,241,057Slovenia105,5599,471,571 France5,049,726403,577,275Spain3,437,362389,211,987 Germany3,481,558354,871,005Sweden805,03349,710,427 Greece1,227,20491,910,642United Kingdom3,464,423303,564,528 Hungary422,03924,426,148EU average 108,177194,035,367 Ireland215,28928,884,907Macedonia42,5421,499,076 Italy4,728,180376,785,615Montenegro149,3489,151,236 Latvia38,4003,775,192Serbia101,7296,368,597

8.  The results of the correlation analysis conducted on a sample of all analysed countries have confirmed the expected positive interdependence between the accommodation capacities and tourist overnight stay.  The high positive value of the correlation coefficient between these variables of 0.984 is recorded.  However, also positive, moderate correlation was observed between tourism competitiveness and accommodation capacities (the value of the correlation coefficient of 0.545) and tourism competitiveness and tourist overnight stay (the value of the correlation coefficient of 0.576).

9. SUMMARY  Comparative analysis of tourism competitiveness of the European Union and the Western Balkans countries suggests that Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro are below the EU average when it comes to the achieved level of tourism competitiveness.  The Western Balkan countries are even worse off compared to the EU countries when it comes to accommodation capacity and the number of tourist nights.  Results of correlation analysis showed a moderate positive correlation between the achieved level of tourism competitiveness and accommodation capacity and overnight tourist stays. Also, there was a high positive correlation between the capacity measured by number of beds and number of overnight tourist stays.

10. SUMMARY  The Western Balkan countries must first improve the accommodation facilities as an elementary tourism resource, and then develop a distinct competitive advantage.  Despite the many advantages of tourism products, tourism of the analysed Western Balkan countries is not adequately developed.  These countries have only a comparative advantage in tourism, because they have a diverse structure of the tourist offer, they are located near the traditional and new tourism markets, they have a long history and a general recognition and preserved natural resources.  The analysed Western Balkan countries should focus on the transformation of the comparative tourism advantage into a competitive tourism advantage.

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