1231 | 407 | Challenges for the tourism industry in time of crisis: based on the example of Ukraine | Enikő Sass, Zoltán Karmacsi, Annamária Linc
Today, few countries in Europe have had as many negative impacts in the last 10 years as Ukraine, which became sovereign just 30 years ago. The armed conflict in eastern Ukraine in 2014 and the annexation of Crimea, the Covid-19 pandemic that began in 2019 and the Russia-Ukraine war that broke out in early 2022 have such a severe economic impact on the country, which will take many years to eliminate, moreover the overall impact of these events is likely to set back the development of the country, and with it the tourism sector, which is our field of research, for decades._x000D_
The aim of the presentation is to show the direct and indirect impact of the above-mentioned events on Ukraine’s tourism. It also describes how the country’s tourism sector has responded to these crises and what measures have been put in place to deal with them. During the research, special emphasis was placed on the westernmost county (oblast) of Ukraine, Transcarpathia. The data of the presentation will be based on international (UNWTO) and national (State Statistics Service of Ukraine) statistical data, as well as questionnaire impact assessments carried out with the participation of representatives of the population and tourism sector of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war._x000D_
During the studies, the theoretical basis of tourism risks, the dynamics of Ukrainian tourist arrivals and the impact on tourism businesses were taken into account. The results show that a local crisis, such as the 2014 conflict in eastern Ukraine, resulted in a structural restructuring of the country’s tourism sector, highlighting new destinations of national importance and generating new travel motivations among the population of the westernmost region of the country. While in crisis situations of global scale, the country’s tourism sector is characterised by total instability, bottoming out of tourist arrivals and slow state actions and measures.
Enikő Sass, Zoltán Karmacsi, Annamária Linc
docent, Ferenc Rákóczi II Transcarpathian Hungarian College of Higher Education, Department of Earth Sciences and Tourism; docent, Ferenc Rákóczi II Transcarpathian Hungarian College of Higher Education, Department of Philology; assistant lecturer, Ferenc Rákóczi II Transcarpathian Hungarian College of Higher Education, Department of Earth Sciences and Tourism;
ID Abstract: 407