The Hospitality Industry's Impact on the COVID-19 Epidemic: A Case Study of Ukraine

Abstract

The global COVID-19 pandemic has had a tremendous effect on tourism industries and allied businesses, including the hotel industry. Even though in Ukraine this business does not make a major contribution to GDP, the presence of development potential, deferred demand, and performed functions makes it an important component of Ukraine, Therefore, there is a need to assess the impact of COVID-19 on the activities of hospitality entities and justify measures to restore it. The comparison of the main indicators of the functioning of the tourism and hotel business of Ukraine before and during the pandemic period demonstrates significant reductions. However, some businesses and destinations, due to the rapid response to the new reality and the reorientation to domestic tourism, on the contrary, improved pre-epidemic indicators. The unpredictability and scale of the pandemics revealed structural problems in the sector and the need for coordinated activities to address them. The review of measures accepted by the state authorities of Ukraine to minimize the effects of COVID-19 on the tourism and hotel business by 2020 revealed their fragmentation and inconsistency. For the macroeconomic level, there offered a set of institutional and state-legal measures, and there is a partnership of stakeholders at the theme level and the micro level—the systematic operation of various innovative and digital technologies (management, sanitation, technology, and communication). The partnership activities of stakeholders contribute to the innovative recovery of this field, a special place among which is the state and legal support of tourism and business: the introduction of compensation programs for owners and employees, off tax bills, reduction of individual taxes, exemption from liability and/or enforcement contractual relations due to force majeure, and the introduction of state insurance programs to protect against the risks of pandemics.