• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.370-379
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• 2020

This study examined the growth characteristics and competitive advantages of Korea's tourism industry compared to other Northeast Asian countries using the Balassa Indices and Shift-Share method. The analysis results showed that the growth of Korea's tourism industry over the past decade was due mainly to external factors, such as the growth of the global economy and the expansion of the tourism sector, while the role of growth momentum of the tourism industry itself was insignificant. Employment in Korea's tourism industry has shown relatively higher increasing rates compared to the rates of the total amount of sales and value-adding. This appears to be caused by the decreased absorption of the labor force in the tourism industry due to the overall capacity of job creation. (Ed note: This sentence was unclear. Please check the edits.)The competitive advantage of Korea's tourism industry has been strengthened over the past decade, but it is still inferior to other countries. The travel account balance showed that the economic size of the Chinese tourism sector had grown rapidly over the past decade, but the competitive advantage of the sector has been weakened. On the other hand, the economic size of the Japanese tourism sector has shown sluggish growth, while its competitive advantage has been strengthened significantly.