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The purpose of this paper is to review the increasing synergy between creative industry and tourism and to draw a clear picture of their integral benefits. The synergy between tourism and creative industry develops direct link to different industrial sectors creating mutual intersecting areas of economic activity that primarily stimulate growth and innovation. The main goal of this paper is to analyse the state of creative industry and their role in tourism competitiveness among European Union (EU) countries. This paper provides a theoretical insight into the field of creative industry and their contribution to the development of the countries through the concept of creative economy. Creativity, creative economy, creative industry, creative tourism are all crucial pillars of future economies and countries competitiveness that are moving towards development and growth. Creative industry is a pre-condition for the development of modern economy and is a dimension that ignites aggregate economic growth, development, and drive tourism competitiveness among the countries. Growing connection between tourism and creative industry and the way they communicate, become the main driver of attractiveness and competitiveness of tourist countries and destinations globally. The role and importance of tourism competitiveness and creativity through creative industry and creative tourism in this paper is researched using the available secondary data of the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness overall index and sub-index (TTCI) on the example of EU countries for 2019. TTCI framework is based on four segments: a) Enabling Environment, b) T&T policy and Enabling Conditions, c) Infrastructure and d) Natural and Cultural Resources. Creative industry and within the creative tourism is an integral part of the overall TTCI matrix and it is difficult to single out one or several indicators that are positively correlated with the overall tourism development. TTCI overall ranking for 2019 shows that among the top 5 countries with the highest competitiveness in tourism, three of them are from European Union. Using the fact that "Natural and cultural resources" are an available indicator for assessing the trend of cultural and within also creative tourism as segments of creative industry, we can highlight the need for further improvements and unused opportunities in this area that will lead to faster boost of tourism and overall development in the future. The TTCI methodology has a wide application in the conduct of tourism and economic policy, but there is certainly space for further improvements, especially from the creative industry and creative tourism point of view. There is a link between tourism competitiveness and economic development, especially within inbound and outbound tourism economies. We could conclude that outbound tourism economies in which tourism does not have such a significant effect on the overall economy have lower tourism competitiveness compared to inbound tourism economies. Given the applicability of the topic and the lack of available data and research related to creativity, creative industry and tourism, further research in this area and work on standardized measures is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]