THE COMPETITIVENESS OF THE REPUBLIC OF CROATIA ON THE EUROPEAN UNION TOURISM MARKET

Purpose The main purpose of this article is to determine competitive position of the Republic of Croatia on the European Union tourism market by analyzing Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index 2017 (TM). Also, this paper aims to compare TTCI of the Republic of Croatia and leading EU countries by international tourism receipts in order to define the weakest point of its competitiveness. Methodology To achieve the purpose cluster analysis and multidimensional scaling have been used. By cluster analysis, different clusters have been identified, and distance between clusters according their mutual vicinity has been measured by multidimensional scaling. Findings The K-means cluster analysis split the sample into the two distinct clusters. The first cluster consists of 13 countries and the second one of 15 countries. By comparing the TTCI of Republic of Croatia with leading EU countries by international tourism receipts it has been concluded that Republic of Croatia has the worst results in Air Transport Infrastructure, Ground and Port Infrastructure, Cultural Resources and Business Travel, Human Resources and Labor Market, and ICT Readiness. Contribution The results point out the main weaknesses of Croatian tourism and also highlight areas where concrete and urgent actions are required in order to reach the best competitive position. The findings of this article are valuable for state authorities as a base for definition and classification of tourism policy goals and for tourism strategy development as well as for general decision making. The results are also beneficial as guideline for increasing tourism revenues.