FEATURES OF LENDING YOUTH TOURISM IN UKRAINE
Authors: DZHEDZHULA Olena 
Published: February 2020

The article considers the potential of youth tourism for economic development of the country. Tourism industry should be considered as a complex multifunctional system, which includes accommodation, logistics, food, transport, entertainment, sports, recreational, cognitive and many other areas of purpose, indicating its significant impact on the development of the Ukrainian economy. The maximization of tourism revenues is closely correlated with the state policy. Firstly, a favorable economic environment for the development of the tourism industry should be created. The problem of youth tourism is relevant and multifaceted. A detailed analysis of conditions of youth tourism lending needs to be made, the reasons for the inhibition of its development and the search for the optimal mechanisms for lending this type of tourism should be explained. In our study, first of all, we focus on the development of student tourism in Ukraine as it has 1,500,000 students, as of January 1, 2019, which are studying at educatinal institutions of different accreditation levels.

A quantitative analysis of the age category of tourists was conducted and the specific features of tourist services in Ukraine were determined. Youth tourism has its own specifics, which is associated with some features of this age category. Student age category has certain specific features. To such features we include the following:

- psychological: in the student's age, the formation of intelligence, active development of moral values ​​and aesthetic feelings are dominant. Tourist tours provide favorable conditions for the learning something new, the formation of a national mentality of a young person;

- physiological: young man is the most enduring, can stand long trips, climate change, not always a high level of comfort during the travel;

- social: student age is a time of acute need for communication, new acquaintances, active self-esteem. Students have a sensitive period of development of the main sociogenic opportunities, they become independent, learn to plan their time and use money rationally.

In terms of time planning, students have more opportunities to travel than young people, who work and are more rigorously linked to contracts with their employers.

The economic factor along with the above-mentioned features is no less important for assessing the prospects of student tourism. Certain groups of student youth can be differentiated according to the sources of financing for tourist trips: full financing by parents; partial financing by parents and by a student’s scholarship or willingness to spend their own funds for the payment of travel services; other sources of funding.

If the first three sources of funding do not require additional research, the clarification of the others should be detailed and their affordability to the student youth should be assessed. However, we believe that the analysis of the use of other sources of funding for student tourism is closely correlated with the desire of students to travel, willingness to reimburse them for costs, knowledge about the possibility of using such sources. After all, with low motivation for traveling, students will not seek the possibility to pay for the travels.

An overview of the literature and researches concerning the activities of the travel agencies showed that today there is no systematic analysis of students readiness to make tourist trips. In order to diagnose the formation of such readiness, a questionnaire was conducted for the youth of the student age. 186 respondents participated in the survey.

The questionnaire gives grounds to assert that the percentage of students interested in tourism is extremely high. This result is quite expected and proves the potential and perspectives of youth tourism. The tendency towards self-payment of tour operator's services is evident as a result of student landmarks for searches for earnings and the desire for independence. However, other sources of funding are not involved and are unfamiliar to students.

Banks offer high interest rates on tourism loans. The high interest rates on tourist lending are the cause of low demand for them. This is amplified by the lack of own money and stable earnings to pay back the loan.

Among the banking services, lending of a part of the tour price with the possibility of self-payment for the rest of the trip should be considered as promising. For the borrower, such a proposal can be considered beneficial as the cost of paying interest is substantially reduced. Another advantageous way of paying for tourist loans are cards with a grace period of repayment (in fact, a tourist loan should be classified as short-term loans).

Analysis of the source base showed that there is no data on the percentage of youth tourism loans. Lack of information on the tourist potential of this category of tourists leads to the absence of special consumer-friendly bank lending programs for this particular sector.

It can be assumed that despite the significant potential of youth tourism lending in Ukraine, the mechanisms for its implementation are poorly developed. There is an urgent need to develop flexible banking programs for youth lending for tourist trips taking into account the specific features (psychological, social, economic) of this category of consumers. Banks need to pay attention to the low level of youth awareness about youth tourism lending. Further research will be required concerning cooperation between banks and travel agencies on lending for youth tourism.