The Ukrainian Market of Ecological Tourism: The Current Trends and Development

The analysis of current trends in ecological tourism market of Ukraine and set of recommendations for its development under the state support are carried out in the research work. In particular, the analysis of the current condition of ecological tourism in Ukraine is carried out. The essence of this analysis is to assess the impact of the following factors on the gross domestic product of Ukraine during the past three years: number of foreign tourists in Ukraine, number of tourism objects, revenues from ecological tourism to local budgets, revenues from environmental tourism to the state budget, number of jobs in the field of ecological tourism and number of domestic tourists. The given analysis showed that the gross domestic product of Ukraine is practically unaffected by the following factors: number of foreign tourists in Ukraine, revenues from ecological tourism to local budgets and revenues from ecological tourism to the state budget. The recommendations on state support of ecological tourism development in Ukraine by introducing a set of models to increase the competitiveness of Ukrainian environmental regions, taking into account the level of influence of the studied factors on the gross domestic product, are developed. The given set of models includes a functional model of the tourism competitiveness of ecological region and a structural model for assessing of tourism competitiveness of ecological region. Keywords: Ecological tourism; Tourist market; Influence factors; Competitiveness assessment; Correlation analysis; Ecological region References Abram, S. Waldren, J., Macleod, D.V.L. (1997). Tourists and tourism, Identifying with people and places, New York, Oxford University Press, UK. Alberts, N. F. (2004). Strategic Tourism Management (TBE 971), University of Pretoria, Unpublished Class Notes. Ashworth, G. J., Tunbridge, J. E. (1990). The tourist, Belhaven, Historic City Publishers. Ballantynea, R., Packera, J., Axelsena M. (2009). Trends in tourism research. Australia Annals of Tourism Research,36(1), 149–152. Bennett, J. A. (2000). Economic, physical and social consequences of tourism. Pretoria, Van Schaik. Cooper, C., Fletcher, J., Gilbert, D., Wanhill, S. (1993). Tourism principles and practice, Harlow, Pearson, UK. Gormsen, E. (1981). Le tourisme international, un nouveau ‘front pionnier’ dans les pays tropicaux. Traveaux & Memoires, Institut des Hautes Etudes de l'Amerique Latine, 34, 329–345. Jennings, G. (2001). Tourism research, Chichester, John Wiley and Sons, NY, USA. Kozal, M., Louisa, A. (2006). Progress in Tourism Marketing, Amsterdam, Elsevier, USA. Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine (Official Website) (2019). http://www.me.gov.ua/?lang=en-GB Accessed 18 May 2019. Pender, L., Sharpley, R. (2005). The management of tourism, London, SAGE Publications Ltd, USA. Risteski, M. (2012). Spatial planning and sustainable tourism as basis for developing competitive tourist destinations. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 44, 375–386. Robson, Ði. (1997) From shareholders to stakeholders, critical issues for tourism market, Tourism Management, 17(7), 533-540. Rogerson, C. M. (2004). Tourism and development issues in contemporary South Africa, Pretoria, Africa Institute of South Africa. Smith, W. L. (2006). Experiential tourism around the world and at home: definitions and standards. International Journal of Services and Standards (IJSS), 2(1), 1–14.