Tourism development in the East Region of Macedonia: Economic perspective

The paper clarifies tourism influence on the regional development of Macedonia in terms of basic economic parameters and tourism indicators. It gives an overview of tourism importance as a source of the economic development in the East region of Macedonia. A comparative analysis is given of the East region with other statistical regions from economic perspective. In this line, different types of statistical tests (Levene, Bonferroni and Tamhane tests) are applied. They are based on the available sources of secondary data addressing GDP and tourism flows (arrivals and overnight stays). The aim of the paper is to determine the influence of the East region by calculating the presence of significant differences between its average values of the variables compared to other regions. Finally, the paper gives recommendations for further development of the region in tourism manner, mainly by boosting the event tourism development