Gastronomic Festivals as a Form of Event Tourism and the Restaurant Business Development

Abstract

Actuality. In the article the process of tourism development influence on raising the economic level of the Ukrainian regions and the state as a whole is explored, tourism is one of such budgetary factors. We have characterized the potential of event tourism. Gastronomic festivals are considered as the main form event tourism of Mykolaiv region. Income from tourism is significant, so the region benefits from a particular event. We argue that event tourism often involves a certain cognitive component, bringing tourists to the local culture. It can be categorized by event type and scale. Purpose and methods. The purpose of the article is to study the theoretical aspects of the development of event tourism in the region, to analyze the current state of gastronomic tourism inUkraine and the Mykolaiv region, to identify the prospects and ways of development of regional event gastronomic tourism. The methodological and informational basis of the work is scientific works of domestic and foreign scientists on the event tourism development, statistics of the State Statistics Service of Ukraine. The systematic approach to the investigated problems is based on the realization of the set goal and various general scientific and special methods of research are used. Results. It has been determined that the features of event tourism are: lack of seasonality; possibility of forecasting; mass; interactivity; innovation; regularity of events; encouraging repeat visits to destinations; entertainment. According to the data of the State Statistics Service of Ukraine for the last year of researches the number of tourists who traveled with the purpose of organizing leisure inUkraine and Mykolaiv region respectively. Therefore, considering the large number of tourist trips for the purpose of recreation and entertainment, it is proposed to pay attention to the event tourism development in planning the tourism development strategy of the region. Conclusions and discussion. The main directions of event tourism in Ukraine, namely gastronomic festivals and competitions, have been analyzed. The short description of gastronomic festivals of the Nikolaev area is given. The importance of gastronomic festivals development and competitions of the region is emphasized. Particular attention was paid to the influence of Public Organizations, namely the Association of Culinary Artists of Ukraine, whose active work of members, in the territory of Ukraine and Mykolaiv region, to increase the potential of event tourism by organizing numerous competitions, championships in culinary arts and service in the framework of gastronomic festivals.