Digitalization: Implementation in the tourism business of Ukraine

Abstract

Global digitalization has led to the formation of a new contour of the economic environment in tourism due to the inevitable and pervasive transformation of socio-economic systems. All this is happening against the background of the synergy of digital and service economies. Therefore, the study analyzes the genesis and world experience of digitalization to determine the areas and advantages of using digital technologies in the tourism business of Ukraine. Systematization, generalization, and surveying were used. Since the main players of the tourism business are tour operators and hotels, and digital technologies are used by entities located in big cities, a survey was conducted among 57 managers of leading tour operators and hotels in Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv, and Odesa. The survey was conducted in July 2020-2021 and concerned digital technologies in the business processes. The results showed a dynamic increase in digital technologies, in particular, by an average of 72.2% per year, which reflects their efficiency and dynamics. The leading digital technologies include contactless payments, chatbots, mobile applications, mobile registration, and VR technologies. The data on their 34.6% use as sources of information search, 78.7% as travel planning and organization instruments, and 59.5% as destination orientation instruments are evidence of the large-scale use of digital technologies by foreign tourists. The essence of marketing, economic, innovation, environmental, service, and configuration priorities of digitalization as interdependent drivers for the initiation of the innovation process in tourism has been determined considering the uneven development and fluctuating dynamics of digital technologies.