GENERAL TRENDS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF WORLD TOURISM: FROM CORONOVIRUS TO MILITARY AGGRESSION

Abstract

Ukrainians are accustomed to the fact that any economic crisis will only indirectly affect the tourism sector and is constantly evolving. Trends in the development of the world tourism market involve identifying the specifics of its operation at the global level. The purpose of this article is to study the development trends of the world tourism sector since the beginning of 2022 due to the coronavirus epidemic and the beginning of large-scale military aggression by the Russian military against Ukraine. The study used general and special research methods, namely: induction and deduction, analysis and synthesis, comparison and classification, statistical data processing and others. The beginning of the tourist year for Europe and Asia was preparing for the period after Covid-19. Many European countries are abolishing the obligation to wear masks on their territory. Due to the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, all tour operators had to announce a temporary cessation of activities in our country. After the closure of the airspace, it became impossible to carry out passenger traffic. As of February 24, 2022, there were more than 31,000 tourists outside Ukraine. Martial law is a force majeure circumstance of conducting tourist activity. The result of negotiations with foreign partners was the export of tourists to countries bordering Ukraine. Most tourists are sent to Poland. Some tourists traveled to other destinations, many decided to stay in the host country on their own until the situation returned to normal. Funds for unfinished travel due to the martial law in Ukraine and the closure of Ukrainian airspace will be available to tourists later, after the situation in Ukraine normalizes. Strong sanctions imposed on Russia by the Ukrainian war have automatically affected the European economy itself, especially in the fields of tourism and air transport, not only in the locomotive of the European economy - Germany, but even in the United States. According to the study, ticket bookings in European countries fell by 30-50%. Prices also rose by 33%. The tourism sector, which accounts for 5% of Turkey's gross domestic product, has been hit hard by the war between Russia and Ukraine as a major tourist destination. The travel sector began to recover steadily in January 2022, but high-profile geopolitical events have significantly reduced its chances of full growth. Thus, the latest UNWTO data showed that the number of foreign tourists in the world in January this year compared to the same period last year increased by 130 percent. This means that in the first month of 2022 alone, more than 18 million travelers registered on the world market. By subregions, the best results are achieved in Europe. Several islands in the Caribbean, Asia-Pacific and many destinations in Europe and America showed the best results compared to the "exemplary" 2019.