NICHE TOURISM AS A FACTOR OF ACTIVATION OF REGIONAL TOURISM IN UKRAINE

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the problem of inner regional tourism activation through the development of niche tourism. The purpose of this study is to identify opportunities for the development of niche tourism in the regions of Ukraine on the basis of existing recreational and tourist potential and creative industry to intensify the domestic tourist flow and strengthen the economic position of regional tourism. Analysis of the existing methodological approaches to the nature of niche tourism resulted in its original definition. Niche tourism is determined as innovative form of tourism aimed at satisfying specific needs of a group of tourists that form a certain target segment of the market – “market niche”, sufficient to create a distinct tourist product. It is found that the peculiarities of the recreational tourist potential of the region (destination), its population, infrastructure and creative industry development level play an important role in such activity implementation. Among the core peculiarities of niche tourism are the following: strong connection between supply and demand at a micro-level, a wide variety of niche tourism products that appears on the basis of differentiation of traditional kinds of mass tourism.  The niche tourism key feature is its implementability at the regional level of the country that is the shift of accent from the macro-level to the meso- and micro-level. Also, the niche tourism opportunities and threats in three groups of regions of Ukraine have been analyzed. The author has outlined the system of marketing activities to promote and activate regional tourism flow. Implementation of the propositions for niche tourism development will allow activating regional tourism, protecting interests of tourism business subjects in difficult pandemic conditions, and increasing the efficiency and competitiveness of regional tourism in Ukraine.