HEALTH TOURISM IN THE UKRAINIAN CARPATHIANS AND THE BLACK SEA COAST: CURRENT STATE AND TRENDS

Abstract

Problem Statement and Purpose. Medical, recovery and treatment and rehabilitation tourism is becoming more and more popular in the world. In Ukraine, this type of tourism occupies a high economic niche in two major recreation and tourism areas - the Carpathian and Black Sea region. These regions are characterized by unique forms of tourist services, which use health and healing properties of natural resources in the form of mineral waters and curative mud, as well as mountain and sea climate. The purpose of this article is an integrated assessment of social and economic factors and prerequisites for the development of balneological tourism in the Carpathian and Black Sea regions, as well as identifying the main aspects of economically viable tourist destinations in these territories.Data & Methods. The article uses official statistics on tourism in seven regions of Ukraine: four Carpathian regions (Transcarpathian, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv and Chernivtsi) and three regions of the Black Sea region (Mykolaiv, Odesa, Kherson). Analytical methods were used both by nature conservation and socio-economic instruments in order to value the tourism processes in there areas. As a methodological basis, the developments described in the scientific papers published by V.S. Preobrazhenskiy, O.O. Beydyk, M.P. Malska, O.O. Lyubitseva and other pofessionals are used.Results. To development of curatively-health, in particular balneological tourism in Carpathians and Ukrainian Black Sea Region recreational-tourist districts considerable resources and marketabilities of sanatorium-resort activity promote. Districts have in Ukraine most of the specialized establishments of placing and high indexes amounts of tourists, that are in these establishments. In today's unfavorable conditions for the development of relevant institutions in the country, the identified trends in the expanded use of forms of health tourism, primarily in the Black Sea region and to a lesser extent in the Carpathian region. The need for annual recuperation is already taking root in the psychology of broad layers of the population with middle and low income levels. The analysic showed the paramount importance of the studied territories for medical tourism. In the process of statistical processing, a certain increase in the coastal tourist destination over the mountain and balneological in the Carpathians was revealed. The article offers several groups of recommendations based on previous research and current statistics. They are common to the two areas studied. It is necessary to introduce a new tax regime and attract foreign investors, which will contribute to the effective work of enterprises. Expanding the list of tourist and recreational services will attract more tourists. The new advertising paradigm of promotion of sanatorium and resort services will allow to increase the number of tourists among all age and property layers of the population. The main directions of development of the medical and health-improving sphere in the Carpathians and the Black Sea region are: attraction of investments of domestic and foreign origin for renewal of material and technical base of sanatorium and resort establishments, increase of personal interest of industry workers in production indices, development of which has not yet been mastered.