Regional tourism and recreation domain as an object of competitiveness research

Abstract

The article addresses the concept of tourism and recreation domain and emphasizes the ambiguous approaches to its interpretation and the lack of established understanding of the economic nature and structural composition of the domain. It offers to consider the tourism and recreation domain in the region as a component of its economic system where tourism and recreation activity takes place – economic activity directed at meeting the tourism and recreation needs of the local population and residents of other regions and countries based on the use of natural and other resources and factors with peculiar tourism and recreation attractiveness. The article specifies that resources and factors of natural and artificial origin (attractions) are the key factors in the forming of the tourism and recreation destinations as areas where the tourism and recreation activity and processes of interaction between tourists and vacationers with the relevant infrastructure take place. The quality of attractions is much determined by the sectoral structure of the tourism and recreation domain of the regions, which stipulates the importance of outlining the author’s understanding of the structure of tourism and recreation activity as such economic activity type as tourism and recreation activity is absent in the national classifier. The article suggests singling out sanatorium activities (providing economic entities with accommodation and sanatorium treatment in the region) and tourism and recreation activity (providing economic entities with tourism, leisure, and other recreational and allied services in the region). In turn, tourism and recreation activity by resources attractiveness in the context of evaluating the economic competitiveness should be considered across the following types: natural resources factors-related (natural resources attractiveness) – cognitive hiking, sports and wellness, extreme, alpine skiing, environmental tourism, hunting, fishing, green rural tourism (agrotourism), wellness holidays; historical and cultural factors-related (historical and cultural attractiveness) – excursions, religious tourism, ethnocultural and festival tourism; commercial and social factors-related (commercial and social attractiveness) – business, entertainment, congress tourism, shopping. Key attractiveness factors are determined for each type. Their evaluation is the basic one for determining the development capacity and competitiveness of the domain in the region.