Statistical analysis of the EU countries from a touristic point of view

• Author: Demeter, T. - Bratucu, G.
• Position: Dept. of Marketing, Tourism and International Relations, Transilvania University of Brasov
• Pages: 121-130

Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov • Vol. 6 (55) •No. 2 - 2013

Series V: Economic Sciences

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF

THE EU COUNTRIES FROM

A TOURISTIC POINT OF VIEW

T. DEMETER

1 G. BRTUCU1

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to study the EU co untries by taking

into acco unt major character istics that effect tourism, such as the number of

tourists that visited each countr y, the total number of nights that were spent in

the local accommodation units a nd the total number of accommodation units

availa ble. These cha racteristics will be a nalysed both individually, using the

graph ical method, and collectively, using the cluster a nalysis, having as main

objective the development of homogeneous gr oups that contain these

countries. The r esults show that the optimal solution is to create 3 clusters,

allowing a suitable differentiation between them, while keeping the

homogeneity among the countries that form it.

Key words: Tourism, Cluster analysis, Graphical analysis, Euclidian

distances, EU countr ies

1. Introduction

Tourism has made a significant

contribution to the economies of many

communities around the world because of

its ability to create income, taxes, hard

currency and jobs [4], [7].

According to a tourism report [1], four

European Union (EU) member countries,

Austria, Germany, France and Spain, are

ranked among the top countries that

continue to lead the way in travel and

tourism.[12] To them a number of

countries in Central and Eastern Europe

(CEE) can be added, which have emerged

from an environment of one-party

communist governments and centralised

planning, now following models closer to

the Western European ones. [11] These

CEE countries now set out to attract tourists

from the main generating countries.

1 Dept. of Marketing, Tourism and International Relations, Transilvania University of Braşov.

However, they are not a uniform entity, but

are diverse in terms of location, topography,

climate, history, culture and economic

development, each willing to identify its

own comparative advantage with respect to

tourism [8]

The aim of this paper is to study the EU

countries, both developed and less

developed, by taking into account major

characteristics that effect tourism. These

characteristics will be analysed both

individually and simultaneously, having as

main objective the development of a few

homogeneous groups, based on the

similarities existing between the countries.

This will be carried out using the cluster

analysis methods, which represent the most

frequently used unsupervised market

segmentation technique in the literature.

[6], Cluster analysis consists of grouping