Development of tourism infrastructure in the regions of Central and Eastern Europe

Tourism is one of those sectors, which are increasingly important in the economic development of regions and countries. The aim of this study was therefore to the see the regional differences in the level of development of tourism infrastructure in the EU countries of Central and Eastern Europe compared to other EU states, Switzerland and Norway. The following selected indicators related to the accommodation infrastructure were analysed: the number of facilities, number of beds in these facilities and the average size of accommodation facilities measured by the number of beds. The results were confronted with the data referring to inbound tourists and accommodation provided to them, in order to answer the question of how infrastructure development responds to the increased demand for accommodation services. The analysis was conducted in terms of the dynamics of change for the years 2000-2011 by NUTS-2 and NUTS-3 regions. The analysis pointed to a continuation of the upward trend in terms of tourists' arrivals and overnight stays as well as a wide variation in the level of development of accommodation infrastructure in Europe. In the regions of the Central and Eastern European EU member states the number of accommodation facilities per 10 000 population is much lower than in the most attractive tourist regions of Italy, Austria, Greece and Spain. The relatively best performance in this regard in the CEE regions is recorded in Croatia and the Czech Republic. In most of the central regions of Europe, the trend in the number of accommodation facilities is downward, but in the analysed period a strong growth was recorded in the regions of Spain, Italy, Croatia and Greece, which are traditional tourist destinations.