ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF CONGRESS TOURISM: TWO- STEP CLUSTER APPROACH

Abstract

The development of congress tourism was conditioned by the development of civilization, which aimed to gather an increasing number in various communities to spread knowledge and ideas and transfer technology. The role of congress tourism in the organization of congress events as well as in the choice of destination in the 21st century is an important factor in the development of the tourism sector since this form of business tourism is very important for the professional development of its participants and actors. . Also, due to the exchange of knowledge and experiences at various congress events, the overall development of the economy and science.
Accordingly, the aim of this paper will be a two-step cluster analysis that will group countries into clusters based on two indicators - The number of meetings and the number of participants in meetings in 2019, according to the last updated data from ICAA. The lowest value of Schwarz's Bayesian Criterion will reveal the number of clusters, while the average value by clusters will determine the most dominant cluster of countries based on the mentioned indicators.