WORLD TOURISM DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
Authors: MAZARAKI Anatolii , TKACHENKO Tetiana , HLADKYI Oleksandr 
Published: October 2020

Background. Tourism is one of the most affected sectors in global economy by the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The introduction of hard sanitary constraints on visiting destinations has led to a sharp demand reduction for typical and related tourist services. In addition, these sanitary constraints identified negative trends in the development of domestic and international tourism in general. Significant restrictions on the functioning of the infrastructure of the tourist services market such as entertainment and recreation, public transport (including international traffic), hospitality and restaurants have affected the dyna­mics of performance of tourism entities and led to significant losses. Research on ways to restore the functioning of the tourism sector in the COVID-19 pandemic and after the remo­val of strict quarantine restrictions, as well as finding ways out of the systemic crisis, substantiation of mechanisms for regulating tourism in the new realities of the world com­munity are especially relevant. Analysis of recent researches and publications. The works of many domestic and foreign scientists are devoted to investigations of modern tourism development problems. Thus, it is worth to note the fundamental works of M. Boiko [1], M. Bosovska [2], N. Vedmid’ [3], O. Liubitseva [4], S. Melnychenko [5], G. Mykhailychenko [6] and others. However, the peculiarities of tourism development in the conditions of complex epide­miological situation in the world and in the context of the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in scientific papers have not yet been described in detail. The analytical conclusions of the official representations of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the World Tourism& Travel Council (WTTC), the World Health Organization (WHO), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), as well as a number of journalistic mate­rials of the world news agencies CNN Travel, The Guardian, The New York Times, National Geographic magazine, and professional domestic periodicals deserve attention. The aim of the article is to analyze the consequences of the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on tourism development as well as to determine the main mechanisms for restoring of tourism sector functioning using different forecast scenarios. The specific objectives of the article are to analyze the dynamics of tourist flows before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, to systematize the consequences of the pandemic for tourism business, to determine the prospects for tourism development in the post-quarantine period as well as to highlight the different regulatory mechanisms to ensure the functioning of tourism enterprises in pandemic frames. Materials and methods. This investigation is based on analytical, statistical and fore­cast materials of UNWTO, WHO, OECD, WTTC. Literary, analytical, statistical, forecast­ting, comparative and geographical, modeling, and graphic methods have been used in the research. Results. The dynamics of tourism development indicators before and during the COVID-19 pandemic has been analyzed. The positive and negative effects of quarantine in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic on tourism are presented. The forecasts for the development of tourism after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic have been made. Regulatory mechanisms for ensuring the functioning of tourism enterprises in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic have been proposed. Conclusion. The difficult epidemiological situation in the world during the pandemic of acute respiratory disease COVID-19, caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, has formed a tendency to reduce sharply the number of international tourist arrivals and revenues from international tourism, and identified the need to introduce unprecedented restrictions on the operation of travel and leisure, tourism and recreation, entertainment and recreation, public transport, hospitality and restaurants. As a result, the development of the world tourism indu­stry has slowed down significantly. Structural crises have begun to worsen due to the sharp decline in economic development and limited sources of income and employment indicators. Structural spatial changes of the tourist flow mainly in favor of domestic tourism are characterized by discreteness. In order to counteract the COVID-19 pandemic, international and domestic professional organizations have developed a number of recommendations for the organization of anti-epidemic measures in carrying out permitted activities, which include rules for receiving visitors and organizing the work of staff in offices, tourism, trade, catering establishments, etc. Adherence to medical and sanitary-epidemiological recommendations, self-discipline and self-organization, administration and education will accelerate recovery from systemic crisis the tourism industry, restore the functioning of tourism enterprises in the COVID-19 pandemic, prevent the spread of epidemiological diseases and infectious diseases among tourists and population, resumption of tourism on a qualitatively new service and information basis.