Current Trends in Developing Travel Industry in the Regions of Ukraine

The article is aimed at studying the trends in tourism development in the regions of Ukraine. By analyzing, systematizing and generalizing statistical data and research works of many scientists, the author considers the state and trends of travel industry development in various regions of Ukraine, reveals problems in regional tourism development, substantiates areas of travel industry development in Ukraine, in general, and its regions, in particular. As a result of the study, current trends in tourism development in the regions of Ukraine are outlined, namely: the revival of tourism alternates with recessions; Ukraine’s image remains uncertain in the global market environment; the outbound tourist flow prevails over the inbound one; the private tourism share is the largest one in the structure of tourist flows both from Ukraine and to Ukraine; the neighboring countries share is the largest one in the geographical structure of tourist flows; tourism is most developed in the following regions of Ukraine: the city of Kyiv and Kyiv, Lviv, Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa and Zaporizhzhia regions; tourism is least developed in Luhansk, Kirovohrad, Zhytomyr, Ternopil, Rivne, and Sumy regions. The study reveals such problems of tourism development in the regions of Ukraine: logistics imperfection; ignoring environmental, sanitary and epidemiological issues; non-transparency of tourism business; social and political instability; global coronavirus pandemic; lack of effective demand, etc. The research in question has made it possible to determine such prospects for developing travel industry in the regions of Ukraine: the achievement of European and world standards for the ratio of service quality and prices for tourism services; adaptation of regulatory and legislative acts of the travel industry to the standards accepted in the European and world community; attracting investment in the tourism business; creation of an attractive tourist image of the regions and promotion of regional tourist products in the national and international tourist markets; development of the infrastructure of regional tourist markets, etc