IMPACT OF TOURISM ON EMPLOYMENT IN SERBIA AND ITS MAIN COMPETITORS

Abstract

Over the last twenty years, tourism has played a very important role in the economic development of many countries. Moreover, travel and tourism industry is one of the leading job creators in the world which employs 118 million people directly, or 3.8% of total employment. When indirect and induced employment are included, travel and tourism industry employs more than 313 million people, or 9.9% of total employment. The aim of this paper is to present the contribution of tourism to the overall employment in Serbia and its main competitors in the tourism market, namely Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Montenegro, Romania and Slovenia. Albania is excluded from the analysis due to the lack of data. The research results show increase in the number of employees in tourism in all observed countries and increase in the share of tourism in total employment in all countries except Hungary whose share was the same in the last as in the first observed year.