Culture and tourism have always been related, but with blurred interpretations of the empirical relationship between those phenomena. This paper estimates the impact of different cultural indicators on tourism development in 27 EU member states for the period 2008–2018, by using dynamic panel data. The results indicate that the number of UNESCO Heritage Sites do not have a significant influence on the number of tourism overnights, whereas there are significant positive effects on international tourism receipts and tourism employment. Moreover, the additional cultural sector specifics considered in the analysis; government expenditure on culture and employment in culture, showed to have a significant positive influence on all three tourism indicators used in the research. In addition, the research results indicate that the real GDP per capita and the level of human capital are significant drivers of tourism development.

Paper extends resilience literature by empirically exploring relationship between regional innovation performance and resistance and recovery aspects of regional labour resilience among NUTS 2 regions in EU‐28 after great economic crisis in last decade. The results of multinomial logic regression model indicate differentiated effect of innovation performance with respect to different phases of resilience. Empirical findings clearly points out very heterogeneous resilience path among EU regions offering evidence that region‐tailored innovation approach embodied in the Smart Specialization strategy is vital for achieving higher labour resilience during (resistance phase) and immediately after (recovery phase) external shock.