LOSSES AND RESCUE AREAS OF TOURISM BUSINESS UNDER THE WAR IN UKRAINE

Abstract

Abstract. The purpose of the article is to assess the losses of domestic tourism from Ukraine’s war with russia and to provide recommendations for saving the tourist business based on this analysis. The analysis of tourism losses from the war with russia was carried out in several directions: actual expenses in the form of a decrease in tax revenues to the budgets of various levels (including due to a reduction in the number of taxpayers); direct losses from the destruction of tourist industry facilities; indirect losses from the reduction of income from tourism in the future; the need to restore the tourism industry. Thus, since the beginning of the armed invasion of Russia, there has been a 10% decrease in the number of tourist enterprises with a 24% decrease in the total amount of taxes paid by tourism entities. The total amount of direct losses due to the destruction of tourism industry assets, of which 28 objects were destroyed and 21 objects were damaged (excluding cultural and religious buildings), is UAH 0.40 billion. The total indirect losses of the tourism industry, measured by the decrease in income from tourism, are estimated at UAH 110.8 billion, which is 3% of all indirect losses of the Ukrainian economy from the russian invasion. The total preliminary need for the restoration of the tourism industry is estimated at 16.80 billion UAH, which is only 0.26% of the total need for the restoration of the economy of Ukraine. We concluded that the costs of restoring the tourism industry can also be divided into direct (repair and reconstruction of tourist industry facilities, costs of demining, etc.) and indirect, for example, costs of the restoration / construction of roads, bridges, airports, without which the tourist industry cannot function normally. So, the projected costs for the recovery of the tourism industry are much higher because they include the costs for the recovery of many other branches of Ukraine. Based on the analysis of the losses of the tourism business of Ukraine from the war, we proposed a set of measures for the gradual recovery of tourism activities, which can be divided into 5 blocks or parts that are interconnected and complement each other’s effectiveness: financial support; territorial improvement of tourist flows (transport logistics); industry optimization (combination of enterprises into cluster formations); improving marketing through the creation of a national tourism marketing organization and its affiliates; sectoral improvement of tourism in Ukraine. The implementation of these measures, combined with the synergistic effect of their simultaneous application, will save the tourism industry of Ukraine for posterity. Key words: tourism, tourism business, tourism industry, tourism subjects, losses, expenses, tourist tax.