CLUSTERING SILK ROAD COUNTRIES BASED ON COMPETITIVENESS FACTORS IN TOURISM INDUSTRY - Tourism in Central Asia: Cultural Potential and Challenges - page 211

pillars and variables. Third, we compared each Silk Road country's global
rank for each T&T Competitiveness Index pillar and determined the best
performing three countries for each pillar, and fourth, we demonstrated
graphically international tourist arrivals and tourism receipts of each clus-
ter for the years 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2011. Because of the lack of data,
we did not include that of 2010 in our analyzes.

CLUSTER ANALYSIS RESULTS

In order to cluster 23 Silk Road countries, we employed a k-means clus-
ter analysis and obtained findings as reported below in Table 2. Findings
in Table 2 reveal that these 23 countries can be grouped in two clusters.
Cluster 1 countries include Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, China, Egypt,
Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyztan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syr-
ia, Tajikistan, and Ukraine. The second cluster (Cluster 2) countries con-
sist of Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Korea, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan,
Russia, and Turkey.

TABLE 2 Countries in Clusters.

Cluster 1 Cluster 2

Albania
Armenia
Azerbaijan
China
Egypt
Georgia
Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Mongolia
Pakistan
Saudi Arabia
Syria
Tajikistan
Ukraine

Bulgaria
Croatia
Rep. of Korea
Greece
Israel
Italy
Japan
Russia
Turkey