Methodical aspects for evaluating firms’ cooperation efficiency in a tourism cluster

This paper studies the approaches to the definition of a modern tourism cluster, as well as the methodological technique to assess the effectiveness of inter-firm interaction of business entities within the framework of tourism clusters. The intangibility of a tourist product determines the specifics of interaction between the tourist enterprises and the territorial public authorities. Close connections within inter-industry is a premise of the use of the cluster approach for strategic planning of inter-firm interaction in the tourist and recreational sphere. Inter-firm interaction within a tourism cluster is an important condition for ensuring its competitiveness. The study and assessment of the cluster subjects’ interaction level is an important stage to evaluate its effectiveness and to make arrangements to eliminate problems, negative factors and their consequences disrupting a cluster functioning. The paper’s result is the evaluation expert technique to identify weaknesses in the inter-company interaction within a tourism cluster of the region.