COMPARING SEASONAL PATTERNS ACROSS MAIN INBOUND TOURISM COUNTRIES IN NORTH MACEDONIA

Abstract

The study measures the level of seasonality among top six inbound countries in tourism market in North Macedonia. The Gini and Theil indexes, as well as the correlation values for each of the selected countries, are computed and compared to show the differences between them. Overnights of tourists from Albania, Bulgaria, Poland, Serbia, the Netherlands, and Turkey from 2011 to 2019 is the primary variable. The research found that the Netherlands has the greatest seasonality, followed by Poland. The seasonality in neighboring countries (Albania, Bulgaria, and Serbia) is significantly lower. Turkey has been added to this group.The study suggests boosting tourism marketing to Turkey, which has low seasonality and accounts significant portion of total foreign overnights, as well as maintaining smooth campaign to neighboring countries with lower seasonality. Furthermore, a discussion is open on creating new strategies for attracting tourists from the Netherlands and Poland out of the main season.