Innovation development and entrepreneurship management in tourism of Azerbaijan: current trends and priorities

Abstract

The article examines modern trends and priority areas of innovation development of entrepreneurship in tourism of Azerbaijan, considering national peculiarities and European trends in the tourism market. The author focused on the importance of tourism, its accessibility, and socially responsible entrepreneurship in tourism services in the sustainable development of society and the achievement of its goals. The economic effect from the tourism sector development was substantiated. Special emphasis was placed on the role and key aspects of tourism digitalization and management innovations in tourism services. At the same time, the systematization of scientific research and developments on these issues indicated the absence of a unified approach to assessing the impact of the innovation development of entrepreneurship in the tourism sector on the country's macro indicators. The main aim of the article is to study, on the one hand, the impact of increasing the tourism development level on economic growth, and on the other, innovation activity on the competitiveness of the tourism sector (based on the experience of the EU countries and Azerbaijan). The information base contains statistical and analytical data of the World Bank, World Intellectual Property Organization, World Tourism Organization, World Economic Forum. The work analyzed the main trends of the tourism services market to achieve the set goals. A SWOT analysis was carried out to determine the market's strengths and weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The key directions in the management of innovation development of entrepreneurship in tourism were characterized based on the assertion of the need to promote successful innovations in tourism and the entrepreneurial ecosystem through the stakeholders' interaction. Special attention was paid to the growing role of the state in increasing the innovation activity of tourism entrepreneurship, especially in the face of the negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Arellano-Bond dynamic regression model for assessing panel data was built to empirically confirm and formalize the positive impact of the tourism development increase (based on the indicators of the share of the revenue from tourism services in total exports, the number of tourists arriving, and the number of tourist departures) on the economic growth of EU countries and Azerbaijan (expressed in GDP per capita growth). Its quality was checked using the Sargan test employing the STATA 14.2 software package. The interrelation of the studied indicators was preliminarily characterized according to the correlation analysis (Shapiro-Wilk test, calculation of Pearson / Spearman correlation coefficients with time lags). A comparative correlation and regression analysis regarding the influence of the EU countries and Azerbaijan readiness for information and communication technologies and the innovation development in general on the tourism sector competitiveness of the countries was carried out. Attention is focused on the fact that one should not dwell only on innovations in ICT in tourism and its digitalization. It is necessary to develop financial, insurance, marketing, managerial, administrative, medical, socio-cultural, environmental, and other innovations in tourism, which today are closely connected and complementary to each other.