Tourism as a tool for economic development: The case study of Estonia

Abstract

This dissertation is on the topic of tourism as a tool for economic development, using Estonia as a case study. The aim of this dissertation was to evaluate the impact of tourism on the economy of Estonia. The dissertation includes an introduction, which explains the motives for the study along with a briefing on the history of Estonia and a view into the country's tourism industry. Following this is the literature review, which is where all secondary research was gathered to provide an insight into what has already been researched about the topic. The next section is the methodology which explains and justifies the primary research methods that were selected by the author. The discussion and analysis of results then follows, which incorporates the results from the author's primary research, with reference to secondary data from literature review throughout. This is finally followed by a conclusion to the dissertation which highlights the key issues raised during the discussion, and also includes recommendations for further research. The principal methods of investigation used were semi-structured interviews in order to gain the desired qualitative information regarding the impact of tourism on the economy of Estonia. The researcher conducted three semi-structured interviews with various experts on Estonian tourism both in Estonia and the United Kingdom. The results of the research concluded that tourism is generally seen as being favourable to the economy of Estonia, despite several issues which are preventing the industry from discovering its full potential - such as seasonality and the dominance of the capital Tallinn as a destination.