КОНЦЕПТУАЛЬНІ ЗАСАДИ СУСПІЛЬНО-ГЕОГРАФІЧНОГО ВИВЧЕННЯ КОМПЛЕКСУ ДИТЯЧОГО ТУРИЗМУ (НА ПРИКЛАДІ КЛАСТЕРУ ППДТ УКРАЇНИ)

Abstract

Nowadays it is extremely important to consider children’s tourism through its various types, including resort and health-improving, cognitive-event children’s tourism (CECT). The last one could be the basis for the knowledge development about the history of Ukraine, the popularization of our state traditions and customs, and nurturing of the values of the Ukrainian people among children. The important role of the interdisciplinary toolkit, in particular in the study of geospatial processes and relationships, ensures the effectiveness of research on the geospatial organization of children’s tourism and its various types in particular, the functioning, problems and prospects of children’s tourism at national, regional and local levels, which is especially important in the context of social transformation, including decentralization, as well as against the background of the current situation in Ukraine. The purpose of the study is to determine the conceptual foundations of the human-geographical study of the complex of children’s tourism, and the main tasks – to outline the typical functional-component and territorial-cluster structures of the CECT cluster based on the Ukrainian experience of organizing specialized tourist services for young tourists. The research methodology includes the use of methods of content-analysis of relevant foreign and Ukrainian publications, comparison, systematization, generalization, graphical and comparative-geographical methods, cluster approach and statistical analysis of factual information from open sources. The place of the CECT cluster in the complex of children’s tourism structure is substantiated. The conceptual provisions of the study of the complex of children’s tourism have been improved by defining the typical functional-component structure of the CECT cluster, which includes the interaction of customers (commissioners) of relevant tourism services, primary tourism enterprises and related secondary, tertiary, as well as management, educational, research establishments, organizations and institutions, based on direct and inverse, information, operational and management links, that is providing the formation of cognitive-event specialization tourist product for young tourists. The typical territorial-cluster structure of the functional children’s tourism cluster as substantiates territorial clusters on national (NTC), trans-regional (TRTC), regional (RTC) and local (L TC, LTSC) taxonomic levels is proposed, which are based on organizational and managerial links, similar natural and socio-geographical conditions of the relevant tourist and recreational areas, as well as on the basis of analysis of the intensity of vertical and horizontal human- geographical links that arise between the subjects of the functional cluster. Besides, examples of the functional CECT cluster of Ukraine are given.