The Impact of the International Tourism Receipts on GDP: The Case of Republic of Macedonia

In the past few decades’ tourism has played a major role in the EU and global economies. By the estimates of UNWTO tourism is accounted for 9% of the world economy’s GDP, and it’s considered the third largest socio-economic sector after the period of the financial crisis. More so tourism’s impact on the economic and social development of a country can be enormous; opening it up for business, trade and capital investment, creating jobs and entrepreneurialism for the workforce and protecting heritage and cultural values. However, measuring the exact impact of the tourism and tourism related activities on the GDP poses a serious challenge. Even though the impact of the tourism on the GDP is highly recognized the correct measurements of his impact differ from country to country depending of their national practices and their legal framework. Also, the impact of tourism is widely spread and besides the direct impact on the GDP and, tourism also contributes with indirect impact to a variety of other socio economic categories, which makes it more difficult to estimate the total impact