The Current Trends of Innovative Development of Tourism Sector in Ukraine

The tourism sphere is most sensitive against the changing external and internal environment, the main driver of its development is innovation. The article focuses on the achievements of the scholars who considered the need to introduce innovative approaches and innovative technologies for the effective development of the tourism sector in Ukraine. Studying the main approaches to the classification of types of innovations in the tourism business, the peculiarities of the application of innovations in tourism are systematized at three following levels: macro level (the State level), meso level (region level), and micro level (level of entities of tourism activities). Attention is paid to the need for the State participation in the formation of an effective strategy for the development of tourism on an innovative basis. It is noted that the introduction of innovations for the development of the tourism services market does require a joint combination of efforts of all tourism entities at the country level, as well as region level, and support on the part of the local self-government bodies. The main directions of development of the tourism sphere in Ukraine on an innovative basis are: creation of new types of tourism products; use of new tourism sites or resources that have not been used before; use of new or significantly improved technologies in the provision of tourism services; changes in the organization of the creation and implementation of traditional tourism products; new solutions in the supply, distribution and delivery chains, including tourists; research and access to new markets for tourism products. The authors consider the role and impact of information technologies in the development of innovative tourism products, such as: augmented and virtual reality, QR codes, online bookings, touch-screen displays. Given the new challenges of today, due to the influence of political, economic, international and other factors, including the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the main trends in the innovative development of the tourism sector in Ukraine are distinguished. It is noted that the application of innovations is the main instrument for increasing the competitiveness of domestic tourism services in the international tourism market.