Peculiarities of Tourism Indtry Management in Territorial Communities of Zhytomyr Region

Abstract

Today, the tourism industry not only plays a key role at the national level, but also has a significant impact on local economic development. The existence of dedicated tourism units in local governments allows for more efficient planning and resource allocation, avoiding potential obstacles that may arise when tourism is subordinated to other departments. The article shows that out of 66 territorial communities, 9 do not have a department responsible for developing proposals and measures for tourism development. Most of them are organized under the name of the Department of Education, Youth, Sport, Culture, and Tourism. This integrated approach, although covering different aspects of community life, strongly influences the allocation of resources, as there is a tendency to prioritize cultural initiatives over specific tourism development. This raises the question of whether this integration is the most effective way of stimulating growth in the tourism sector. The analysis of long-term community development strategies showed that 44 UTCs have a programme or a draft programme, and a further 9 have adopted tourism development programmes with an action plan. The successful development of tourism in a territorial community depends on both its resources and the status of its centre, which may be a village, town, or city. Finally, it is important to differentiate responsibility for tourism development, as the potential for tourism initiatives varies according to the size of the settlement. Accordingly, we have classified the territorial municipalities, resulting in the following distribution: the urban type (M) includes 12 municipalities with subtypes M1, M2, M3, M4, which were identified based on their regional or district importance. The settlement type (S) includes 22 municipalities with subtypes S1, S2, S3, in which the centres did not perform rayon functions before the decentralization reform. The rural municipality type (R) includes 32 municipalities and has 2 subtypes: R1, R2. Thus, in order to ensure sustainable growth and success in tourism, the authorities need to consider many factors for effective management.