Dynamics and geographical structure of inbound tourism in political transit countries: case of Ukraine

Abstract

Ukraine is an important component of the world market for inbound tourism. From the beginning of the twentieth century in some years it was included in the list of the world leading tourist countries in terms of international tourist arrivals. To study modern trends in the development of inbound tourism in Ukraine, during the period of independence, the concept of tourist transit, developed by D. Hill, is applied. It is а part of the wider concept of political and economic transit, well known in the social sciences. The indicators of dynamics of tourist arrivals, incomes from incoming tourism and its geographical structure analyzed in the article indicate incompleteness of tourist transit in Ukraine. Tourist arrivals in Ukraine are more vulnerable to economic and political crises compared with developed countries. Incomes from foreign tourism are an order of magnitude lower. The share of several neighboring countries – Moldova, Belarus, Russia, Poland, Romania, and Hungary – in the geographical structure of the inbound tourists is too high. Accordingly, the index of geographical concentration of inbound tourism is considerably higher than the optimal one; that is the market of inbound tourism in Ukraine is not sufficiently diversified. The development of tourism is negatively affected by the unsettled military conflict in the eastern part of the country. Some indicators of the development of inbound tourism, in particular, its excessive dependence on Russia by 2014, too high share in the structure of arrivals of tourists from countries that were a part of the former USSR, bring Ukraine closer to post-colonial countries. For the sustainable development of inbound tourism in Ukraine, it is necessary to continue the democratic reforms in order to complete the political transit, to overcome finally the consequences of the domination of the communist authoritarian regime. Also, important tasks are the settlement of the political conflict in the East, the improvement of the tourism policy and the improvement of branding of the national tourism product, the creation of competitive niche tourism products, as well as the improvement of the quality of tourist services. If these tasks are not fulfilled, foreign tourism in Ukraine will enter the stage of stagnation.