MECHANISMS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF RESTAURANT SERVICES IN THE ODESSA REGION

Topicality. Restaurant industry is one of the activities designed to provide catering services for organizing leisure activities (if necessary). The global and Ukrainian restaurant business is developing rapidly, the competition for visitors is increasing and the mechanisms of its promotion are changing. This factor forces restaurateurs to pay more and more attention to marketing strategies, the style of the enterprise and the individual details that give the establishments uniqueness and originality. Aim and tasks - to assess the state of the restaurant industry development of the Odessa region, to identify its strengths and weaknesses, to offer marketing strategies and mechanisms for further promotion of services. Research results. The pace of the restaurant industry development always depends on the dynamics of the country's population income growth. So far, the country's population is not highly capable. The main contingent of clients are tourists and young people. Young people give preference to eating out. In the Odessa region, the number of enterprises whose activities include the provision of food and drinks in 2019 amounted to 488 units. They employed 3478 people. The volume of products sold by enterprises whose activities include the provision of food and drinks in 2019 amounted to more than one billion hrn. The main weaknesses of the region's restaurant industry are: the actual decline in the population's income; narrow specialization of some institutions; lack of funds to finance innovations; the prices for some signature dishes are too high; lack of a well-functioning system of discounts and bonuses; staff turnover of waiters. Strengths are: interesting proposals in the menu; stylish design; the ability to order food home or to the office; availability of a constant base of corporate clients. Potential abilities are spread due to: a logically built organizational structure of the company; competition as an incentive for development, expansion of the range of services; improving marketing and management, both internal and external; the emergence of new technologies; change of advertising technologies. The list of the main threats boils down to the deterioration of the economic and political situation in Ukraine; decline in the purchasing power of Ukrainians; limited investment opportunities, low reinvestment rates. Conclusion. The catering market in the Odessa region could develop even more dynamically, if not for the impact of some negative factors. The main are the high rental rates for premises and the still low solvency level of the majority of potential clients. This makes it difficult for new establishments to stay in the market, and many of them close within a year or two. The main factors influencing consumer preferences in the catering market are: taste of dishes; territorial availability of the institution; the opportunity to buy food to go; reputation of the restaurant; price. Innovative options for the promotion mechanisms for the restaurant industry in the region can be: �fast and random� format, �home cooking�, theme parties, PR-parties, bonus systems, new entertainment services.