EN
Nowadays the role of knowledge as an immaterial factor of gaining competitive advantage is more often stressed in the literature, however, rarely in terms of tourism, being one of the most important sectors of economy. The reason are, i.a., unfavorable determinants of knowledge management in the tourist sector (e.g. seasonality of economic activity) or limited interest in 'low-tech' sectors in the research on knowledge. In the article there were presented ways of understanding knowledge, its types and determinants - mainly barriers - of its transfer and absorption in the tourist sector and the ways of overcoming those barriers. The literature survey allowed to show how determinants of knowledge transfer and absorption affect relations between entities in tourist regions, therefore influencing also tourist regions competitiveness.