The impact of the tourism sector on economy in transition economies: Selected country application

Tourism sector is one of the rapidly growing sectors in world economy, it provides important benefits to national economies. With numerous positive economic impacts, tourism sector?s impact on transition economies is the subject of this paper. In the first chapter of this paper, the concept of tourism, its peculiarities and kinds have been explained. Factors that effect the development of tourism and the importance of tourism on economy have been also mentioned. The economic contributions of tourism to incomes, employement and the balance of payments brought it to a cardinal position in national economies. In the second chapter, transition economies that are in the process of transition from centralized planning to open market have been examined and their assessments have been made with the help of macroeconomic indicators. As for the application part, impact of tourism on economy in selected transition economies has been analyzed. The relation between Gross National Product and Tourism Income of 11 selected countries between the years 1995 and 2011 was studied by using panel data forcasting technique. Key Words: Tourism Sector, Transition Economies, Economic Impact, Panel Data.