Tourism in the conditions of war: features of tourist priorities, demand and supply

Abstract

The article is devoted to defining the peculiarities of tourist priorities, demand and supply in the conditions of martial law. The activity of tourist operators in war conditions was analyzed, the main directions of tourist trips chosen by tourists in the 2022 season were determined and characterized. The influence of the state of war on the activities of travel agencies was shown, most of which were forced to switch to online work or stop travel agency activities. In general, the tourist market of Ukraine has undergone organizational changes during the war, but it is actively working, reorganizing and creating new tourist products. The sphere of tourism is one of the most important sectors of the economy. In terms of revenue, it ranks third in the country's economy. Taxes paid on income from tourist trips make up a significant part of the budget of the regions and the country. Trade enterprises, hotel and restaurant establishments, production of souvenir products, all types of transport are related to tourism. The purpose of this article is to study the specifics of the activities of tourism and tourism business entities in the conditions of a full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war, to determine tourism priorities, the offer of tour operators and the demand of Ukrainians for tourist services. With the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the activities of tourism market entities such as tour operators and travel agents practically ceased from February to May 2022, however, most tourism enterprises paid taxes to the state budget. According to the State Tourism Development Agency, the budget of Ukraine has under-received taxes from the tourism industry due to the war. Among all subjects of the market of tourist services, military operations had the most negative impact on the work of tourist operators. Some of them have suspended their activity, others have stopped it altogether. The «pause» or temporary suspension of tourist activity was conditional in the first months of military aggression. At that time, the management and employees of tourist operators tried to find an opportunity to enter the European markets and transfer airlines with the possibility of departures from the nearest, neighboring countries to Ukraine. The tourism business struggled to hold on. Closer to June, it became clear that focusing exclusively on the domestic market is unrealistic. In order to achieve full loading of tour operators, it is extremely important to enter new markets. This is a very necessary and very serious step of one of the largest tourist operators of Ukraine, «Join Up». With the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russia into Ukraine, one of the important and, despite the Covid-19 pandemic, successful sectors of the national economy - tourism and the service sector – was reorganized. Until this moment, tourism was at the stage of strategic development, and found itself at the stage of the possibility of preservation. The preservation of tourism and the tourist business is an extremely important task in the conditions of a full-scale war, in order to support the country's economy and the future recovery after our victory. The new conditions change both the demand and supply of travel operators and agents. However, new tourist products adapted to force majeure circumstances appear every season.