International Tourism as a Factor of Economic Development of Countries and Regions

Abstract

кушнір л.м. магістр ДВНЗ «Ужгородський національний університет» Брензович к.с. к.е.н., доцент, доцент кафедри міжнародних економічних відносин ДВНЗ «Ужгородський національний університет» The paper studies international tourism as one of the factors of economic development of countries and regions of the world. The impact of tourism on the formation of state revenues, infrastructure, employment and cultural heritage is considered in the context of the evolution of international tourism. International tourism is recognized as a way of dealing with the main problem of global economy, which is the gap in levels of economic development between developed and developing countries, which is expressed in Manila Declaration on Global Tourism. It is defined in the paper that the global tourism is developing under the influence of social and demographic, economic, political and technological factors. Previously, the growth of tourism was caused by the idea of travelling for finding the new lands and resources. It is underlined that current political and military conflicts, unstable social and epidemiological state in some countries undermine the development of tourism and cause its low efficiency even in the number of arrivals is growing. The dynamics of tourism development in the world is analyzed using indicators of the number of tourist arrivals and revenues from tourism in the context of tourist regions, suggested by the World Tourism Organization. It is underlined that the amount of income from inbound tourism depends directly on the tourist flow, since the money from tourism takes into account transport costs, accommodation, food, excursion fees and the cost of purchasing local goods. Therefore, the development of international tourism causes development of related sectors, infrastructure development, growth in employment, as well as to enhancement of cultural communications among nations and reaching international understanding. It is defined that the number of tourist arrivals is growing in all regions at least during the investigated period of 2009-2018 years. Asian region is characterized with the highest dynamics of arrivals, while European region still remains the leading part of the world in this sector, having 50% of all global arrivals and almost 40% of revenues. It is also found that African tourist region is having great potential for development, but due to bad infrastructure and low level of security, it remains unrealized.