CURRENT STATE AND PROSPECTS OF DEVELOPMENT OF THE OUTBOUND TOURISM FROM PRC TO UKRAINE

Abstract

The People's Republic of China is the world's most populous country with an ever-growing economy second only to the United States. China was the largest tourism market prior to the global pandemic, and most analysts attribute the recovery of international tourism industry to the resumption of the outbound tourism from China. Attracting foreign tourists and reorienting inbound tourist flows is a particularly important issue for the domestic economy, as Ukraine has lost its traditional markets for consumers of its tourism product after the start of the military conflict. Under these conditions, the development of cooperation with countries whose residents are potentially interested in the domestic tourism product becomes a priority for Ukraine in the field of tourism, especially when it comes to countries with growing and hyper-large tourist markets. This article examines the state of inbound tourism from China to Ukraine, analyzes existing means of stimulating the flow of tourists and evaluates their effectiveness, and develops recommendations for promoting domestic tourism products on the Chinese market, taking into account the experience of other countries. It was established that Ukraine's cooperation with China in the field of international tourism has significant potential for intensification, provided that an appropriate strategy is developed both at the level of private tourism companies and the state level. It was established, that the most effective of the already implemented measures to attract Chinese tourists was the visa liberalization. It was established that the potential of cooperation is insufficiently used and can be significantly expanded if the appropriate strategy is developed both at the level of the largest private tourism enterprises and at the state level. The first steps in developing such a strategy may include: identifying priority areas for attracting Chinese tourists to Ukraine; expansion of humanitarian cooperation with China in the areas of training personnel for the tourism industry; inclusion of the support of the Chinese payment system; targeted advertising and promotion of Ukraine in the Chinese segment of the Internet; use of Ukraine's logistics potential as a "bridge" between Europe and Asia.