Bìznes Inform (Mar 2024)
The Tourism and Recreation Potential of the Region: Essence and Factors of Influence
Abstract
The article examines the category of «tourism potential of the region» and the factors that influence it. It has been found that most of the authors consider the phenomenon of tourism potential primarily through the prism of resource provision of the region (destination), and the rest of the uncontrolled factors of the macro-environment remain unattended. It is substantiated that the concepts of «tourism potential of the region» and «tourism potential of destination» are identical in content. It is noted that the study of factors and the need to model their impact on the economic potential of the destination stems from the fact that the latter acts as an object of investment policy at the micro-, meso- and macro-levels. It is identified that in connection with the mass translation of foreign literature, the scientific views of the Anglo-Saxon scientific space had a predominant influence on the domestic economic theory in the field of tourism, while the theoretical conceptions of tourism economics of researchers from continental Europe were insufficiently studied by domestic scientists. The expediency of interpreting the term «tourism potential of the region» not as a set of factors of resource provision of the destination, but as a certain property of the tourism system is substantiated. Otherwise, the concepts of «tourism potential of the region» and «tourism resources of the region» are identical. The authors suggest to interpret the tourism potential as the ability of a destination to form and implement a certain amount of tourism services and material goods that will be in demand and meet the needs of tourists and vacationers. The expediency of using the term «tourism product» as a set of existing and newly created public goods suitable for meeting the needs of tourists and visitors of the destination is substantiated. At this, the destination with its resource provision generates a tourism product, acting in the market as a supplying party. The expediency of differentiating the management system at the level of destination into strategic and operational components is substantiated: in the subsystem of strategic management of the destination, the tourism potential of the region acts as a target parameter, and in the subsystem of operational management it is the volume of the tourism product. It is noted that the level of tourism potential is determined by four factors: an aggregate of elements of supply on the part of the destination; current demand for travel services of the destination; competitive environment and expected trends in the development of tourism.
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