Analysis of Cultural Resources of Southeast European Countries as a Factor of Tourism Competitiveness

The former role of tourism in terms of provision of accommodation and food has become outdated. Tourist offer increasingly includes additional activities, such as visits to various tangible and intangible cultural sites, and events that tourists perceive visually. In the contemporary tourism trends, cultural resources of Southeast European countries have become an important factor that maintains the competitiveness under conditions of the growing competition on a world scale. Cultural resources directly affect tourism, but there is also an inverse relationship reflected in the impact of tourism on cultural resources that are becoming an important factor for the choice of tourist destinations. The subject of this paper is to review the contribution of cultural resources to the development of tourist destinations with the help of the analysis of elements of Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index - TTCI.