Assessing the International Competitiveness of Tourism Services Trade

Tourism is the only service activity that can potentially provide trading opportunities for all nations, regardless of their level of development. However, it is also a sector where there is clearly an uneven distribution of benefits that is largely dependant on countries’ ability to strengthen their performance in the global economy, which in turn requires improving their competitiveness. Against this background, the paper attempts to suggest three different approaches to the assessment of the tourism services trade international competitiveness, starting from the evolution of tourism services imports performed by the world economy: first, through the quotas of the world tourism market that countries maintain; second, by means of the changes that have taken place in the tourism export structure of the economies analyzed; third, through the modifications in the degree of international specialization in tourism services trade of the countries under review. This method allows for the construction of a matrix typology that provides an integrated framework for assessing the international competitiveness of Romania’s tourism services trade.