Comparison of Labor Productivity in Tourism and the Economy, Analysis of Selected Countries

Practical realization of the main paradigm in economic science, which is the pursuit of sustainable development of the country, requires a proper definition of this concept and the development of tools to measure it. In addition, the improvement of economic policy oriented towards sustainable development is the decomposition of this goal into particular sectors of the economy. The aim of the paper is the analysis of how the tourism sector contributes to a whole country performance. The tool used to achieve the goal of the article allows the calculation of labor productivity for the whole country, as well as for individual regions or industries. This indicator also provides a full comparability between the results obtained. The research covered several European countries that differ in their level of development. Tourism activity has been defined as section I of the Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community, commonly referred to as NACE rev.2, accommodation and food service activities. Thus, an additional detailed purpose of the paper is the presentation of the labor productivity index (LPI) as an alternative measurer of regional and sectorial performance. The presented method of LPI measurement and results of its application may support the political decision-making process of establishing guidelines to optimize the industrial structure of the economy.