INSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENT AS AN IMPORTANT PREREQUISITE OF DEVELOPMENT OF RECREATIONAL AND TOURIST SPHERE

The objectives of this article are to determine the essence and structure of the institutional environment, as well as to study its impact on the formation and activities of recreation and tourism in Ukraine. The article reveals the essence of the institutional environment from different points of view. The formal and informal institutions are defined and their role is highlighted. Considerable attention is paid to the analysis of normative legal acts and state electronic resources of a number of foreign countries. The normative legal acts regulating the recreational and tourist sphere in Ukraine are considered. The Laws “On Tourism”, “On Resorts”, “On the Nature Reserve Fund of Ukraine”, “On Environmental Protection”, the Land Code, as well as the Regulation “On recreational activities within the territories and objects of the nature reserve fund of Ukraine” etc. are analyzed. It has been found that recreational activities are less protected than tourism, although tourism is an integral part of recreation. It is the normative and legal acts in the field of recreation that must fully ensure the protection and development of the natural-recreational, historical and cultural potential of our country and regulate tourist activity in Ukraine. Based on the analyzed regulatory legal acts of Ukraine in which the resort and recreation sphere is included in the list of priority economic sectors and, taking into account the demand factors, tendencies and tendencies in the development of the recreational services market, it is stated that there is a need to improve the state policy in this area, the introduction of effective management, organizational, legal, economic, investment mechanisms of its development as a highly profitable branch of the country's economy. The necessity of adjustment of some concepts of recreational sphere in legislation, development of national standards of provision of recreational and tourist services, their harmonization with international standards, ensuring the conformity of quality and prices of recreational and tourist product-services, which will increase the competitiveness of recreational sphere and reach the international level of its functioning, has been identified. To this end, the state authorities should pay attention to the development of regulation of small and medium-sized businesses, which are the foundation of the economic development of the recreational sphere. For the rational and effective use of recreational, natural, tourist, medical and other resources of Ukraine, it is necessary to form a recreational and tourist environment by creating and ensuring the functioning of the development zones of resorts and tourism, to create, implement and offer the consumer a competitive national recreational and tourist product-service.