political situation and temporary occupation of the territory of the Autonomous
Republic of Crimea, the tourist flow decreased significantly - by 8%, but starting from
2015, positive trends in its development were determined in the tourism business, the
number of tourist arrivals increased on 3% compared to the crisis 2014 year.
While in the dynamics the number of citizens traveling abroad was not changed
significantly during the analyzed period, a negative tendency is observed among
foreign citizens who visited Ukraine: the largest drop in visits was for 2014-2015 years.
In 2016-2017, the number of foreign tourists increased to 7% in 2016 and 10% in 2017
years. Thus, there is a steady trend of growth of tourist flows in Ukraine. Such a
positive tendency gives an opportunity to talk about the gradual growth of the trust of
foreigners to our country.
Ukraine is gradually becoming an increasingly attractive market for tourist
services for foreign tourism companies with a great potential for its steady
development. Ukraine has all the prerequisites for proper economic development
through tourism, but it loses significantly in the competition, lagging behind the leading
countries of the world in terms of the development of tourist infrastructure and the
quality of tourist services. According to the components of the tourism competitiveness
index in 2017, our state was among the dozens of countries with the lowest level of
security and ranked the 127
th
position, in a favorable business environment - the 124
th
one, in terms of cultural wealth – the 51
th
, in health and hygiene are not all so bad ,
because it belongs to the top ten countries, ranked the 8
th
, with price competitiveness
– the 45
th
, according to tourism service development indicators – the 71
th
, with the level
of international openness – the 78
th
, for the infrastructure of air transport – the 79
th
, for
land and port infrastructure - the 81
th
, with the focus on tourism –the 9
th
0, for natural
resources – the 115
th
,for human resources and labor market - the 41
th
, for ICT readiness
– the 81
th
, for cultural resources and business trips – the 51
th
, in terms of environmental
sustainability – the 97
th
. In accordance with the general index of tourism
competitiveness, Ukraine ranked the 88
th
position in the ranking of 136 countries [18].
An analysis of the comparative dynamics of persons who traveled abroad and
those who visited Ukraine during 2007-2017 years, a figure. 2 indicates that in the
tourist flows in 2012-2013, the ratio was about 49% to 51%, while in the period 2014-
2017 years, the share of persons traveling abroad was 65% compared to 35% of those
who visited the country.
One of the important factors in increasing the flow of tourists from Ukraine to
Europe is the introduction of a visa-free regime for Ukrainian citizens, first of all those
who used the services of travel companies. After all, far from all Ukrainian citizens
have a good command of foreign languages and have the appropriate skills to organize
independent travel abroad. At the same time, travel companies are working in more
competitive environment now and therefore have to not only improve their services
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