TOURISM AND EMPLOYMENT - A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF POLAND AND CROATIA

Purpose - The purpose of the article is to compare the role of tourism in generating jobs in Poland and Croatia in the years 2006-2016. Methodology - First, the review of world reports on the contribution of tourism to employment was conducted and the methodology of measuring this contribution was presented. Next, on the basis of data published by Eurostat and World Travel & Tourism Council, three research hypotheses were verified. In the case of the first and second hypotheses Pearson's correlation coefficient was used, and in order to check the third - the map of dynamics of the impact of tourism on employment was created. Findings - Conducted analyses allowed positive verification of the second hypothesis: correlation between the number of people employed in tourism and its contribution to total employment in Poland and Croatia is positive and statistically significant. However, the first hypothesis wasn't confirmed - positive significant dependency between the size of tourist traffic and the number of employed in tourism is only true for Poland and only refers to the number of people employed directly in travel & tourism industry. The third hypothesis had to be refuted because in the analyzed years only Poland (not Croatia) was the country which was able to make use the opportunities provided by tourism to generate jobs. Contribution of the research - The original map of dynamics of the impact of tourism on employment was designed (based on the portfolio methods). It allowed indicating four fields: giving away everything, penetrating market, creaming-off and taking everything.