Trends of Tourism Sector Clustering in Lithuania

Abstract

The article proposes the model to evaluate tourism clustering level and specifies the guidelines for discussion about Lithuanian tourism clustering peculiarities and affecting factors in the frame of actual good practice examples. The theoretical frame of a model is based on sustainability of tourism development and value export. The significance of tourism clusters is determined by their operations and impact on economic development in emergencing regions of Lithuania. Geographical concentration of interconnected organizations and their activities help to revise the level of tourism clustering. The article provides scientific insights about physical infrastructure, sufficient skills, financial resources, technological challenges, regional competitiveness and practical measures of Lithuanian tourism clustering by explaining emphasizing problems to arising tourism clustering level in practice.The research methodology is based on display of systematic approach about provided sectoral clustering analysis by the review of scientific literature, Lithuanian and European legal documents, programs and reports for evaluating the financing support mechanism of Lithuanian organizations encouraging the tourism clusters to conduct competitive activities, value export and cooperation, general scientific methods, secondary statistical data analysis of Lithuanian tourism clusters, contingency and factorial analysis for testing tourism clustering level. Empirical testing reveals the limited functionality of tourism clusters and low integrity into regional and firm-level economic performance. Evaluated factors – prosperity, entrepreneurship and structural changes, importantly scaling the tourism clustering level. The theoretical and empirical analysis of the tourism clustering allows to formulate the scope of tourism clustering solutions, that enables increase the supply of tourism service according tourism clustering level.