TOURIST SAFETY AND SECURITY: A FACTOR OF THE COMPETITIVENESS OF SECONDARY TOURIST DESTINATIONS

Most specialized studies aiming to quantify economic competitiveness have predominantly focused on the issues that support a strong productive sector and, less on related fields, but gives added value. Under these circumstances, success can only be associated with the possession and fructification of the elements generating competitive advantages. It is already known that in order to be competitive, a destination or an economic entity in the field must be able to attract and satisfy tourists to a higher level in relation to competition. The geopolitical cliff and profound globalization of services - coupled with the most relaxing leisure time - motivated us to treat somehow succinctly a particular aspect of tourism competitiveness, of critical importance in our view - tourist safety and security. To substantiate the analysis, we have used the data provided by the World Economic Forum through the Tourism Competitiveness Index (TCI), which is one of the most used tools for assessing international tourism competitiveness. From a methodological point of view, the same index was used to highlight any gaps between Romania and the other Central and Eastern European countries (EEC-EU).