Factors of international trade in tourist services: theoretical aspects

Abstract

The article substantiates the determining influence of four basic factors of international trade: natural and geographical differences between states; differences in production costs in different countries; the effect of the country's specialization in the production of the good with a greater relative advantage; the effect of the scale of production, and the corresponding theories. All other "reasons for international trade" discussed in numerous publications are at best only modified basic ones. Likewise, these theories can be applied to the analysis and forecasting of international trade in services, particularly in the field of tourism, which is relevant for the post-pandemic development of the countries of the world. Unlike international trade in goods, which recovered in 2021-2022 thanks to strong consumer demand for products, especially in advanced economies, supported by government fiscal stimulus measures, trade in services is recovering at a slower pace. Instead, the uneven distribution of vaccines, the emergence of new COVID-19 stamps and non-tariff restrictions continued to hamper the recovery of tourism and passenger transport in the service sector. Thus, trade in commercial services grew by 16% in 2021, which is 5% below the pre-pandemic level. Accordingly, the problems of the study of international trade in services, in particular tourist services, require thorough research. The existence of four reasons determines the possibility of 15 variants of types of international trade for an individual country or between any two countries. None of the four reasons for international trade is sufficient for its emergence, since only the reduction of the "resistance of distance" in the conditions of the existence of at least one reason for international trade activates its potential. Since the international trade in services needs the basis of scientifically determined approaches to its development between countries and regions in the cross-border dimension, this article presents the main scientific aspects of the theories of international trade and makes proposals for their practical implementation in solving the problems of international trade in tourist services.