Industrial tourism in Sumy region: resources and perspectives

Abstract

The essence of industrial tourism as well as the volume of terms “production tourism” and “industrial tourism” are considered. The regional features of the clustering process of the tourism services market are studies and the ways of its intensification are demonstrated. The sectoral and territorial structure of the industrial tourism in the Sumy region is characterized. In the context of industrial tourism, the Sumy region is a diversified complex that combines large-sized and medium-sized industrial enterprises which are specialized in extraction of energy resources, the development of machinery, the chemical and petrochemical industry, and the processing of agricultural products. Taking into account the geographical peculiarities, six industrial tourism clusters (ITCs) are selected in the area of the Sumy region, i.e. territorial combinations of industrial, agricultural, transport or service enterprises that have a tourist attraction and conduct excursions to their production sites. In addition, the cluster should include necessary elements of the tourist infrastructure (transport, hotel-restaurant, information infrastructure etc.). Detailed sectoral characteristics of each industrial tourism clusters and their specialization are presented. It was defined that the industrial tourism cluster (ITC) of Sumy (the city of Sumy, and Sumy, Lebedyn, Bilopillia and Krasnopillia districts) specializes in such segments as machine building tourism, chemical industry tourism, light industry tourism, food industry tourism, agro-industrial tourism, construction industry tourism and power industry tourism. Concerning Okhtyrka-Trostyanets ITC (including Okhtyrka, Trostyanets, and Velyka Pysarivka districts), the most developed segments are mining tourism, light industry tourism, food industry tourism, and construction industry tourism. Romny ITC (Romny, Lypova Dolyna and Nedryhailiv districts) includes food industry tourism, light industry tourism, construction industry tourism and machine building tourism segments. Konotop ITC (Konotop, Krolevets and Buryn’ districts) is best represented by the machine building industry tourism and food industry tourism segments. The specialization of the Hlukhiv-Putyvl’ ITC (Hlukhiv and Putyvl’ districts) is special. This is the least promising ITC for the development of industrial tourism. Instead, it has developed pilgrimage, historical, cultural and other tourism segments. Shostka ITC (Shostka, Yampil’ and Sredna-Buda districts) includes chemical industrial tourism, food industry tourism, machine building tourism, and forestry tourism segments.