Promotion of military tourism as a tool of socioeconomic development of a region (on the example of Kyiv Oblast)

Abstract

The article provides evidences to support the notion that development of military tourism is a driver of socioeconomic growth of a region. In the present study, we used the gen- eral scientific and sophisticated scientific methods of research, including structural-functional analysis, statistical method, and comparative analysis. The study results were substantiated based on the data of the State Committee of Statistics of Ukraine, State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, State Agency of Tourism Development of Ukraine, Kyiv Oblast Center of the Development of Tourism, and materials from other scientific and official sources. We provided a definition of military tourism, which is proposed to be understood as a special kind of tourism in which the tourists can visit war-related historical sites and modern notable military objects; join the realities of the contemporary life in the military and familiarize themselves with the military experience; and participate in safe military events or historical reconstructions. We analyzed the reasons of decline in the tourist flows that occurred over the recent three years and presented the main ways of increasing them. We analyzed types of military tours offered by the Ukrainian tour guides on the domestic tourism market and studied the level of involvement of the respondents in military tourism in Ukraine. We demonstrated that military tourism is on offer in Ukraine, but against the backdrop of martial law, the internal tourism has specifics related to permits and restrictions that are in force during the war in relatively safe western and central regions of the country. Assessment of perspectives of military-tourism development in Ukraine using SWOT analysis revealed that it has many advantages, the main being the resources that can be used in creating a competitive tourism product, while the shortcomings include inaccessibility of the landmarks, absence of finances and investments, and high cost of the tours. For the socioeconomic development of Kyiv Oblast, we propose the Ukraine Undefeatable tour, having accounted for the abovementioned requirements to organizing tours in Ukraine in the conditions of martial law. The tour was developed based on the objects we selected in Kyiv Oblast. We confirmed that the development of military tourism is one of the most efficient drivers of socioeconomic growth of the region, Kyiv Oblast in particular, because it promotes increases in socioeconomic indicators of the region’s development.