CULTURAL RESOURCES IMPACT ON THE TRAVEL AND TOURISM COMPETITIVENESS OF THE CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

In the recent years, competitiveness has become one of the common concepts employed to approach and describe the sustainable development of the travel and tourism industry: specialized literature has defined and circulated concepts such as travel and tourism or tourist destinations competitiveness suggesting not only the importance of the concept but also the necessary focus the tourist organizations should put on. Competitiveness of the travel and tourism industry, like of the tourist destinations, is defined taking into consideration a set of reference elements related to the major functional dimensions of the industry such as the business environment, infrastructure, laws and regulations, and resources available. The paper assesses how important are and what is the contribution of the cultural resources to the overall competitiveness of the travel and tourism industry and to its specific performances based on the specific data referring to the Central and Eastern European countries.