CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION OF QUALITY OF TOURISM OF UKRAINE

Abstract

Based on the understanding of the concept of «quality», the article hasdeveloped a theoretical approach to the study of the characteristics of theterm «quality of tourism». Using the logic of the SERVQUAL methodology for assessing the quality of tourism services, a toolkit for assessing the quality of tourism at the country level is proposed. It has been proved that the state needs two conditions to ensure the quality of tourism at the level of individual tourism enterprises and at the level of the entire tourism industry.Based on the structure of the sub-indices of the competitiveness index ofcountries in travel and tourism, the factors that directly affect thecompetitiveness of the tourism industry are identified: rivalry betweencompetitors, new competitors, similar in composition, tourism services ortop-level tourism services a change in the preferences of consumers oftourism services in relation to the characteristics of a tourist service, achange in the general situation in the country. Using the components of the countries’ competitiveness index for travel and tourism, the quality ofdomestic tourism was assessed, which reflects an overall assessment of the factors contributing to the development of the tourism business in thecountry.The results of the assessment made it possible to generalize therelatively low state of tourism quality indicators from the standpoint ofstakeholders: consumers of tourism services, business, investors and thestate. A grouping of the main problems in the field of ensuring the quality of tourism has been carried out, in particular: institutional (ineffective activity of state authorities in the field of tourism); political (political crises, revolutions, wars) financial and economic (insufficient financial support of the country’s tourism industry from the state, financial markets are not fully developed, frequent financial crises; high bank lending rates, large tax pressure travel to tourist enterprises, etc.). Due to the listed problems, the country’s tourism industry cannot compete in the world market of tourism services and, accordingly, provide high-quality tourism services, carry out innovation and investment activities in the field of tourism.