Analysis of tourism industry of Ukraine

This article is devoted to the condition, urgent problems and trends of the modern Ukrainian tourist market. Inbound and outbound tourism flows, trends and geographical distribution have been thoroughly analyzed during research. The dynamics of imports and exports of tourism services, namely the contribution of tourism to the economy of Ukraine have been determined as well. The research is based on statistical information over three years from 2009 to 2011. A trend of growth of inbound and outbound tourism flows have been shown during research but the rate of growth of outbound tourism is higher than inbound. The research also has been revealed that both domestic and foreign tourists prefer independent travel without the travel agencies. Basic motives for the travelling are private trips, organized tourism and business travel. As for the geographical distribution of tourist flows, in inbound and outbound directions the leading countries have been identified that have not changed over the researched period. Basically there are neighboring countries, the CIS-countries the USA and Turkey and Egypt - the main destination of Ukrainian tourists. As for the exports and imports of tourism services the in-kind equivalent of exports have been outpaced imports but the rate of growth of imports is higher than exports and it's a negative trend for Ukrainian tourism. So, although Ukraine has all chances to become a tourist state in the future it doesn't realize its potential fully nowadays