THE ROLE OF FERRY TRANSPORT SERVICES IN THE TOURIST INTEGRATION OF THE BALTIC SEA REGION

When studying integration processes, the term tourist integration must be identified. The theoretical basis of this term is the transactional concept of the regional integration theory. According to the literature studies contacts and relationships are one of the measures of integration. In this paper the authors focused on the relationships between tourism and sea transport in the Baltic Sea Region. Using their own criteria, they carried out a quantitative and qualitative assessment of tourist integration in the context of the development of ferry transport services in the period 2001-2015. As regards the relations, there was a slight progress, but the connections slightly regressed. Despite the strong competition of air transport, ferry transport played an important role in tourist integration of the Region.