Regional Features of Ecotourism Activity Development in Ukraine: Comparative Analysis

At present, ecological tourism as a priority area of the regional economy needs transformational transformations that will help increase the tourist competitiveness of the regions of Ukraine and sustainable development of territories. The purpose of this study is a comparative analysis of strategic documents in the development of ecotourism and infrastructure, taking into account regional characteristics. To achieve this goal, methods of analysis and synthesis, comparison, generalization, structural and logical analysis were used. The article analyses the strategies of regional development for 2021-2027. Based on the analysis, it is established that in a significant number of strategic documents the priority areas include accelerating the achievement of competitiveness and innovation of the region's economy on the basis of smart specialization. Regional strategies do not address the creation of appropriate conditions for the formation of the institutional environment for the development of ecotourism. Only in the Development Strategies of Lviv and Odesa oblasts, among the strategic goals, tourist attractiveness is recognized due to the formation of the appropriate infrastructure. At the same time, the term “rural green tourism” is most often used in tourism and recreation development programs implemented in most regions of Ukraine. It is proved that there are differences and inaccuracies in the applied terminology on the problems of ecotourism. The programs usually talk about the formation of tourist infrastructure, but do not say anything about the creation of ecotourism infrastructure. The mechanisms of organizational, economic, informational, financial support for the development of ecotourism activities are not prescribed. Therefore, it is expedient to make changes and additions to the Strategies of regional development until 2027 and programs for the development of tourism and recreation, the content of which is to include a set of measures to intensify the development of ecotourism and the formation of ecotourism infrastructure. This will create a positive tourist image of the regions of Ukraine; increase their competitiveness and investment attractiveness; to ensure the growth of employment and the share of tax revenues from business activities in the ecotourism sector; increase the number of domestic tourists, including “weekend” tourists, sales of regional tourist products, the number of tourist routes, the number of newly created ecotourism and recreational facilities, the number of employees in the tourism industry.