The study is devoted to the theoretical and legal analysis of the main trends in the development of tourism legislation in Ukraine. The relevance of the chosen subject lies in the presence of grounds to consider the tourism industry promising, given the possible positive social and economic effect for Ukraine, if the state considers the factors necessary for such an increase. The purpose of this study is to analyse the main trends in the development of tourism legislation of Ukraine and international legislation as part of national legislation. The analysis, synthesis, historical-legal, and comparative-legal methods are applied to achieve this goal. This methodology enabled the analysis and comparison of the international and national regulatory framework through the prism of historical and legal experience and allowed the drawing of conclusions about the current main trends in legislative development in the field under study. The results of the study are: today, tourism in Ukraine remains a non-priority industry (this statement is based on the general trend towards stagnation of the tourism sector in Ukraine), is unattractive for foreign tourists (this is due to objective reasons, including not only external threats that exist today, but also scanty indicators recorded before the outbreak of the pandemic and armed aggression by the Russian Federation) and works mainly for domestic consumers, which is confirmed by the data of the state statistics service of Ukraine. The situation has developed, in particular, due to a number of factors that are presented in this study (considering the experience of foreign countries), and insufficient regulation of tourist relations at the legislative level, which is analysed in detail in the paper. The study can be useful for further disclosure of issues in the area and as a basis for discussion in scientific circles against the background of the decline of the industry.