Peculiarities of International Competition in the Market of Tourism and Hospitality

Abstract

The global hospitality and tourism market is being transformed through several core factors: new consumer needs of the industry, pandemic, increased competition, in particular the emergence of new regional tourism markets and new companies. The aim of the article is to investigate the competitiveness of the global hospitality and tourism market based on the example of key attractive tourism regions: Africa, the Americas, Asia, the Pacific, the Middle East and Europe. The methodology is based on a statistical analysis of regional hospitality and tourism markets by key indicators of their competitiveness in 2010‒2021. The results show a significant contraction of the global hospitality and tourism market, with transformations in regional markets (Asia due to rising travel costs and restrictions, the Middle East due to rising costs of tourism services). The European hospitality and tourism market is found to be stable due to a slight increase in the cost of travel services and weaker regulatory restrictions introduced during the pandemic. The structure of the industry has changed between 2020 and 2021, with a growing share of regional markets in Europe, resulting in a change in international competition between regional tourism and hospitality markets. The key competitive advantages of European countries in the field of tourism are historical and cultural heritage, developed tourism infrastructure, level of service, safety, cost of tourism services, including transport and accommodation facilities. Despite the development of new regional tourism markets (Asia, Pacific, Middle East) due to increased prosperity and improved infrastructure, the pandemic has caused these destinations to stagnate due to increased costs of tourism services.