Analysis of Hospitality Sphere Competitiveness in Ukraine on the Basis of Social Dialogue

Ukraine is a warring country in the centre of the European continent, which had significant potential for the development of the hospitality industry in the post-war period. Today, Ukraine is considered one of the countries with an average level of tourism development since the country does not adequately use the resources and conditions that are favourable for the sufficient development of inbound tourism. According to many indicators of the competitiveness of the services of the hospitality industry, our state currently lags far behind European countries (Calderwood & Soshkin, 2019; World Economic Forum, 2022). The main reason is military action due to the attack of Russia, which reduces such indicators as security, human resources, financial stability, air and ground transportation infrastructure, and the priority of tourism to almost zero.

Financial and economic instability in the country due to the powerful impact of the two-year quarantine of the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s brutal military aggression, martial law, and the uncertainty and imperfect legal framework regarding international investments and the improvement of tourism business activities have become the main factors in the deterioration of the general situation of the hospitality industry in Ukraine.

Back in 2019, Ukraine was ranked 78th in the global ranking of the competitiveness of the hospitality industry, according to the World Economic Forum (Calderwood & Soshkin, 2019). The rating evaluates the competitiveness of countries in the field of tourism and hospitality based on various criteria, such as infrastructure, security, quality of services and many others. Thus, the main reasons for such an indicator were that for a very long time, the sphere of hospitality and tourism in Ukraine was not given due attention, existing competitive advantages were not used, no renewal and development of tourism infrastructure took place, no effective state policy was developed and implemented in the development of tourism sphere, an attractive tourist image of the country was not formed.

One reason for such delayed development is the lack of a clear strategy for interaction at the level of local authorities, businesses, and communities in the regions of Ukraine. Social dialogue, which would simplify and accelerate the process of interaction at the level of hospitality service providers, is not established, but it is very much in demand.

That is why the specified research topic is extremely relevant and timely today.

The scientific novelty of the research consists in the formation of conceptual components of the new post-war paradigm of the development of the tourism and hospitality industry of Ukraine.

The purpose of this study is to analyse the competitiveness of the Ukrainian hospitality sector on the basis of social dialogue during the war.

The investigated problem is new in the modern scientific space, which is connected with a long peaceful period of life on the European continent. Therefore, it is not sufficiently covered.

In general, the theoretical issues of competitiveness in the hospitality industry were investigated by Tsai et al. (2009), revealing significant differences in the interpretation of this concept by different authors. Nevertheless, researchers note that the competitiveness of a tourist destination will depend on its location, the level of economic development of the territory, the degree of clustering of tourism entities, and the level of development of tourist infrastructure, which will directly affect the quality of hospitality industry services (Tsai et al., 2009). The approach relayed by the researchers is interesting but justified: the competitiveness of the tourist destination in the long term will be preserved only if the hospitality sector has a positive effect on raising the living standards of the local population.

The competitiveness factors of the hospitality industry were also investigated by Ioncica et al. (2008). Among the main factors determined by the results of sociological research are the ability to interact (the ability to dispose of resources that are available simultaneously to several companies); the organisation’s ability to constantly “learn” (to introduce innovations that will have a positive effect); the accumulation of high-quality human capital, which depends on the development, implementation and provision of high-quality hospitality services; use of modern information technologies and the latest technologies of strategic planning. Despite the relative certainty of the factors, researchers emphasise that the concepts used to form the competitiveness of the hospitality institution vary significantly and differ from each other (Ioncica et al., 2008).

Based on the scientific results of Ioncica et al. (2008), followed by Lacap (2014), who analysed a specific case with a hotel in the Philippines, Lacap (2014) emphasizes the importance of support from the state and the presence of academic institutions, which will contribute to increasing competitiveness and guaranteeing the sustainability of development.

General recommendations on the establishment of social dialogue in tourism were provided back in 2008 by representatives of the ILO (Bolwell & Weinz, 2008). In Europe, the process of social dialogue implementation in the tourism industry and the hospitality sphere started already in the last decade, as evidenced by official program documents (Dresin, 2019).

Foreign scientists are quite actively investigating various aspects of the competitiveness of the hospitality industry on the basis of social dialogue, especially since this process accelerated after the pandemic, which made significant adjustments to the development of the hospitality industry. For example, Ackholt et al. (2021), analysing the state of the tourism industry in the post-Covid period, note that the recovery of tourism is a priority, but the sector must become more sustainable, and workers and quality jobs should be at the centre of the recovery. The authors emphasise that it was through social dialogue that they were able to unite with social partners and stakeholders to call for measures to stabilise the tourism sector and put it on the path of sustainable recovery (Ackholt et al., 2021).

Molina (2021) studied the process of strengthening the potential of social partners and social dialogue in the new world of work using Spain as an example. The author notes that social partners agree that political instability is the main obstacle to moving forward on many issues (Molina, 2021).

At the same time, foreign experts hardly investigate the processes that take place in the hospitality industry during military operations, which is understandable. But when such a tragedy occurs, it turns out that people are not ready to enact emergency means of saving the tourism industry. Therefore, today’s scientific achievements of Ukrainian researchers are gaining even more importance. They can be used as experience in the event of a negative scenario of the development of events in one or another country.

Zhuravka et al. (2023) paid considerable attention to the current problems of the hospitality sphere based on the results of a sociological study. The main problems of the functioning of hospitality enterprises during the war are increased costs, decreased profits, a shortage of new customers, and the need for investments for further development. Almost half of the respondents (41%) do not expect a quick recovery (at least 2–3 years) (Zhuravka et al., 2023).

The vast majority of Ukrainian scientists focused their attention on the problems of the post-war recovery of the tourism sector of Ukraine. At the same time, the issues of competitiveness of the hospitality sector are almost not considered. Thus, Shcherbakova (2021) analysed the change in the calculation of the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index of countries, which was calculated by the World Economic Forum since 2007, and the Travel & Tourism Development Index, which was calculated in 2021 and determined Ukraine’s place in this tourism rating (Shcherbakova, 2021). However, military operations in the country led to drastic changes in all sectors of the economy, including the hospitality sector, so it is necessary to investigate its current state in wartime conditions.

Issues of social dialogue in the industry were taken care of by Vnuchko and Tymoshenko (2020), considering this issue in the context of the crisis of 2020 during the pandemic, but again it is worth noting that the phenomena recorded three years ago cannot simply be extrapolated to today’s events, therefore the actualisation of the current state and issues of establishing a social dialogue in the context of tourist services also requires attention in the context of this study.

Bigus (2020) also studied social dialogue as a mechanism for increasing the competitiveness of the tourism business. The author notes the high role of social dialogue in ensuring the competitiveness of the tourism business due to the possibility of coordinating the efforts of state and non-state structures, emphasises the significant importance of the human factor as a determinant of competitiveness and suggests developing strategic planning that will make it possible to determine target priorities (Bigus, 2020).

In previous works (Zavarika, 2022; Zavarika & Zelenko, 2022; Calinescu et al., 2023; Zavarika et al., 2023), the authors of this study found out the specifics of organising tourist activity under martial law in Ukraine, the state of tourist facilities in the de-occupied regions, and the possibilities of restoring tourist activity in certain territorial communities.

So, the review of the literature showed an insufficient, even low, level of research on the proposed topic.

The theoretical and methodological basis of the research is the fundamental provisions of the theory of social geography, tourism, and economics. The philosophical basis of the study is dialectics, which considers phenomena in the process of development and interrelationship. The dialectical method is the methodological base for conducting scientific research in the field of hospitality. It allows us to assess not only the state of the hospitality industry but also the time and conditions of operation on which the level of competitiveness depends. Other researchers used this method while investigating digitalisation as the main factor in the development of the hospitality industry in the context of modern challenges (Kirilyuk et al., 2022).

Taking into account the radical transformational changes in the Ukrainian tourism market, the following methods were used during the research: rating, monitoring, statistical methods, SWOT analysis, abstract logical methods, and scientific knowledge methods. The methods of analysis and synthesis were also used.

The rating approach is a method that has gained general recognition for assessing competitive advantages in the hospitality and tourism industry, its elements were applied in the analysis of the competitiveness of the tourism sector of Ukraine. Thus, Polkovnychenko and Murai (2018) used this method to assess the competitiveness of Ukraine in the European market of tourist services. Every two years, the World Economic Forum forms the Travel and Tourism Development Index, which currently covers about 140 countries of the world and is considered one of the main indicators of the state’s competitiveness rating in the field of hospitality and tourism (Calderwood & Soshkin, 2019). Lepetyuha (2016) uses this method to study the problem of ranking the effectiveness of tourism activity in the regions of Ukraine.

The monitoring method contributed to obtaining objective scientific data, which became the basis for the analysis and formulation of theoretical and methodological conclusions and practical recommendations. This method is widely used by scientists; in particular, Lokhman et al. (2022) developed an algorithm for monitoring the development of the tourism sector’s innovative potential.

The application of SATD official statistical data allowed us to conduct a comparative analysis of the current state of the tourism sector of Ukraine and showed a significant decrease in the size of the tourist tax in connection with military actions in Ukraine. A significant obstacle in conducting the research was the insufficient amount of statistical data or their complete absence, which is explained by military operations in the country and often the impossibility of obtaining reliable information. Aleksandrova et al. (2022) studied statistical accounting in international tourism.

The abstract-logical method and the method of scientific knowledge were used for the purpose of researching the current state of the hospitality industry of Ukraine and assessing its competitiveness on the basis of social dialogue, which made it possible to form the conceptual components of a new paradigm for the development of the tourism and hospitality industry of Ukraine. Researchers Granovska et al. (2019) used it to identify modern problems and prospects for the development of agritourism, formulate its essence, and generalise world experience.

The use of SWOT analysis allowed, first of all, to identify strengths, which will then be used as competitive advantages. Weaknesses will become the basis for developing an action plan to improve the area and, accordingly, eliminate them. Threats are a factor that cannot be controlled or completely eliminated, but with the help of their definition, an effective program of actions and combat can be developed for the enterprise if they appear and will enable the enterprise to undergo adaptation in a timely manner and successfully continue its business and economic activities. Determining the opportunity factor will help to form a competitive strategy for the development of the hospitality industry. Researchers Savko and Zagaikevich (2021) use the SWOT analysis of the activity of an enterprise that belongs to the hotel business as one of the most common tools of strategic management and the most important stages of analysing the activity of a business entity and conducting a competitiveness assessment. Lacap (2014) also used this method and emphasised the importance of support from the state and the presence of academic institutions, which will contribute to increasing competitiveness and guarantee the sustainability of development.

The consistent use of the specified methods and techniques made it possible to form clear, logically constructed conclusions of a theoretical and methodological nature, the application of which will contribute to the gradual restoration of tourism in Ukraine, increasing the competitiveness of the hospitality sector, and the development of a practical toolkit for post-war reconstruction on the basis of social dialogue.

The main idea of the research and its scientific novelty was the assumption about the onset of the period of scientific paradigm change, which is connected with the long crisis and military situation, which led to the transformation of accents in the problem-subject area. The inaccessibility and destruction of some tourist destinations in the country caused the need to actively search for new ones, create modern safe tourist routes, and develop the hospitality industry in other regions. And it is social dialogue that becomes a kind of chain that contributes to the formation of a renewed scientific paradigm.

In the global rating of the competitiveness of the hospitality and tourism industry, Ukraine took a rather low place. Before 2014 and the first military invasion of Russia into Ukraine, the country had the following indicators of the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index: in 2009 – 3.84 and 77^th place in the rating; in 2011 – 3.83 and already 85th place; in 2013, p - 3.98 and 76^th place.

According to the components of the Index of Competitiveness of the Hospitality and Tourism Sector, Ukraine had quite different scores. In 2019, the competitive advantages of Ukraine were 11th place - in “Health and hygiene”, 48th place - in “Human resources and labour market”, and “Price competitiveness of the tourism industry” - 19^th place in the world, “Cultural resources and business trips” - 55^th place in the world. As the economy gradually regained stability, Ukraine productively improved its data on “Business Environment” from 124^th to 103^rd place, “Security” from 127^th to 107^th and “International Openness” from 78^th to 55^th place in the world ranking. The indicators “Sustainability of the environment” - 114^th place and “Condition of natural resources” - 116^th place was the lowest, moreover, they significantly worsened compared to 2009 (Table 1).

These indicators are indicators of the decreasing competitiveness and attractiveness of the tourism sector and the hospitality sector of Ukraine.

To form a strategy for increasing and strengthening the competitive advantages of Ukraine in the international market of hospitality and tourism services in the post-war period, it will be advisable to rely on those positions in which Ukraine has optimal ratings, namely: the price competitiveness of the hospitality and tourism industry, the presence of cultural, historical and natural monuments and places that attract tourists.

In these conditions, it is worth emphasising the important role of social dialogue, in particular, there is a need to strengthen the function of state bodies that are able to guarantee material protection for the development of the hospitality industry. Accordingly, it is urgent to create an effective model of cooperation between the state and private entrepreneurship against the background of support for business initiatives by the local community, compliance with the implementation of the “Strategy for the development of tourism and resorts for the period until 2026”.

It should be noted that the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI) was standardised and modernised into the Travel and Tourism Development Index (TTDI) in 2021 by the World Economic Forum in order to create a common vision of mobility in the world. The new Index, as a tool of analysis and comparison, provides an understanding of the strengths of economies and potential development strategies of countries in the fields of hospitality and tourism. Also, on its basis, a platform is created for discussing the latest trends in the development of the hospitality industry in the world and the formation and implementation of political, business, and investment strategies and solutions that will ensure the stable improvement of the tourism industry.

The change of the Index from TTCI to TTDI is also explained by the strengthening of tourism’s role in society and the need to strengthen cooperation in the established joint actions for the development of the hospitality sector. This will weaken the pandemic’s negative impact and contribute to the preservation of the countries’ natural and cultural environment.

The imbalance of the tourist load on a certain territory, and the incompetent distribution of income from the tourism sector, in the end, reduce the level of convenience of life of the local population, cause damage to the natural and cultural resources of the area, provoke a negative attitude at the local level to the development of the hospitality industry in the region.

In order to ensure an efficient and effective recovery of the hospitality sector, it is necessary to take into account the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic and take into account the risks of military threats and their impact on the competitiveness of states in the tourism industry.

International military conflicts lead to a loss of stability and economic hardship in the tourism sector, which can have a long-term negative impact on the development of the hospitality industry. The tourism industry is characterised by a long recovery, so there is a danger of the decline of hospitality industry enterprises, a decrease in the standard of living of millions of workers in this sector, and the deterioration of the economy at both local and state levels around the world. In view of this, the rating assessment of competitiveness in the field of hospitality and tourism and the corresponding planning of directions for strengthening competitive advantages are the main issues in the modern world.

The 2021 travel and tourism development index includes 117 countries of the world, considers a set of political, economic, social, cultural phenomena and factors that create stable growth of the hospitality, travel and tourism industry and determine the level of competitiveness of countries in the world market.

According to the overall ranking of countries between 2019 and 2021, the Index increased by only 0.1%, in addition, only 39 countries out of 117 improved their economies by more than 1%, 27 - decreased by more than 1%, and 51 increased or decreased within the range of 1%.

Among the ten countries with the highest rating - the countries of Europe, Asia and the Pacific region with a high level of income Japan led the ranking of countries according to the Travel and Tourism Development Index 2021, and the United States took second place. Next, the top 10 most powerful countries in Europe are: 3 – Spain, 4 – France, 5 – Germany, 6 – Switzerland. This chain is interrupted by Australia with 7^th place. Great Britain - 8^th place, 9^th - Singapore. Compared to 2019 (12^th place), Italy got a good result and entered the top ten in 2021, while Canada, on the contrary, dropped from 10^th place in 2019 to 13^th in 2021.

We would like to point out that the data for TTDI 2021 was collected before the war in Ukraine. The World Economic Forum removed the Russian Federation and Ukraine from the rankings because data for these economies no longer reflect current or long-term trends and conditions. (World Economic Forum, 2022)

Based on the results of the analysis of the competitiveness indicators of the Travel and Tourism Development Index for 2021, it is possible to note the formation of some trends:

• –

  the field of hospitality and tourism plays a leading role in the global reconstruction of the economy, primarily in relation to low-income countries, which suffered the most from the COVID-19 pandemic;

• –

  many world economies have a strong potential for general development through investments in the hospitality industry, which indicates the need for the development of the hospitality and tourism sector; and

• –

  problems of the economy, such as a lack of labour force, reduction of production capacity, and change in demand, formed new prospects for development and determined the need for enterprises to adapt to the new reality.

For organisations and enterprises working in the field of hospitality in Ukraine, the primary task is to improve service and raise the quality of service to world standards. The hospitality industry in Ukraine, unfortunately, is still not very capable of meeting the needs and demand of foreign tourists because a significant number of enterprises in the field of hospitality, transport, accommodation and food have a rather outdated material and technical base and do not fully meet the norms of international standardisation and global service. Because of this, the development and implementation of a competitive strategy for the development of such enterprises, precisely from the point of view of international experience, is a very relevant problem today. It is this part of the country’s economic activity that affects the development of the tourism potential and infrastructure of its regions. First of all, this is quite important for the regions of Ukraine, which have a high recreational stock and great tourist potential, where cultural and historical values, outstanding natural sights, and business centres of the country are concentrated.

Full recovery is not possible without consolidation of efforts and balancing of interests of all participants in the service process within the sphere of hospitality and tourism. In Ukraine, the National Tourism Organization of Ukraine [NTOU] should become the structure that will systematically ensure the establishment of social dialogue in this area. The activity of this NGO is designed to establish a tripartite social dialogue in the tourism industry through the formation of a network of regional tourist information centres (TIC) and destination management organisations (DMO). A special role is assigned to the second type of organisation, which should include authorities, businesses, stakeholders and professionals and promote partnership for a common vision and development of the destination. The main principle of DMO effectiveness is “Public-Private-Community 4C” — consolidation, communication, coordination and collaboration of government, business and communities (National Tourism Organization of Ukraine, n. a.).

The network of such NGOs in Ukraine only began its development in 2021, when the first Pryazovskiy DMO was created. It was supposed to become a pilot project to demonstrate the effectiveness of such a form of partnership for the development of the regional tourism industry, including the field of hospitality, but 2022 and a full-scale invasion prevented this plan (Mazur, 2021).

Geographically, Ukraine is located in the centre of the European continent, which provides a perspective for the development of the economy due to an increase in the number of incoming tourists. The state has a huge tourism potential, combining significant historical and cultural attractions and rich natural resources. The fact that there are 11 natural parks and 13 nature reserves in Ukraine, and more than 15% of Ukraine’s territory is related to resort and recreation areas, is of great importance for the development of educational tourism. However, the competitiveness of domestic enterprises in the field of hospitality is lost to European institutions of this industry, the level of European and international service, due to which the indicators of inbound tourism in Ukraine tend to decrease every year.

The activities of hospitality enterprises are closely connected with the external environment, i.e., a complex of elements operating outside the boundaries of these enterprises. Subjects of the external environment with which the institution works and interacts are called controlled elements. Uncontrollable elements are those that have an impact on the functioning of the enterprise but are not influenced by the employees of the management bodies, that is, the inflation rate, political or economic situation, etc. Conventionally, the external environment is divided into macro- and micro-environment.

Macro-environmental factors include international, economic, political, social, ecological, scientific and technical, cultural, and force majeure factors and events. Since they do not directly interact with the enterprise, macro-environmental factors are indirect actions. However, they can create a favourable or unfavourable external environment for the economic activity of hospitality industry establishments.

Favourable events that have a positive impact on the hospitality industry of the countries and regions in which they take place are, for example, well-known international festivals, championships, competitions, Olympics, carnivals (Eurovision, FIFA World Cup, Holi festival in India, Venice Carnival in Italy, etc.).

Negative factors that have an influence or have influenced the improvement of the hospitality industry and the economic activity of enterprises in this area are the World financial and economic crisis of 2008, the global epidemic of the coronavirus infection COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) in 2019–2023, full-scale military invasion, with the typical example being Russia’s aggression against Ukraine in 2022–2023.

Since the factors influencing the micro-environment are consumers of hospitality industry products and services, intermediaries, service providers, bodies of legislation and local government, and communities of cities and towns where enterprises in the field of tourism and hospitality are located, these enterprises themselves can directly interact with, to some extent, control, and influence the micro-environment.

One of the leading factors of the micro-environment is competing enterprises. This fact gives an understanding that research and identification of potential competitors, continuous improvement and improvement of the quality of services, introduction of new technologies in the field of recreation and leisure, presentation of unique and interesting offers on the hospitality market, and vivid advertising campaigns should be carried out at the enterprise in the field of hospitality. to attract more consumers, products and hospitality services.

The cooperation of the hospitality enterprise and the external environment will affect the results of its activities in the internal environment (on the development strategy and corporate style of the enterprise, competitiveness, production potential, etc.).

The analysis of the volumes of services provided by enterprises in the hotel and restaurant, tourist, excursion, transport and recreation and entertainment sectors in 2019–2021 in Ukraine showed a tendency to decrease indicators in 2020, which is explained by the implementation of epidemiological restrictions related to COVID-19. In 2021, when vaccination was implemented and, accordingly, sanitary restrictions were eased, the volume of services provided by hospitality enterprises tended to increase. It is worth noting that in terms of the dynamics of the total volume of services implemented in 2021, most of them were occupied by individual entrepreneurs, which indicates that small and medium-sized businesses in the hospitality industry recovered faster after the economic crisis.

Statistics for 2022–2023 are currently not available, as the State Statistics Service temporarily stopped collecting information due to the full-scale war waged by Russia against Ukraine. However, it can be argued that the infrastructure of the hospitality industry in Ukraine has suffered maximum damage and destruction, especially in the frontline and occupied regions. It can be predicted that the indicators of the number of enterprises, volumes of implemented services, tourist flows, etc., for these two years will be quite low. But after the victory of Ukraine and the end of the war, the field of hospitality and tourism has good prospects for recovery and further development.

We will use the SWOT analysis of the hospitality industry of Ukraine (Table 2) to analyse the current state of competitiveness of hospitality industry services in Ukraine and further develop a strategy for its development.

So, based on the results of the SWOT analysis, we can say that the hospitality industry of Ukraine faces a number of difficulties that are economic, military-political and epidemiological in nature. There is a change in the scientific paradigm in the direction of finding new alternative tourist destinations, which will contribute to the development of domestic tourism and become the basis for the recovery of inbound tourism in the future. The components of the new development paradigm are presented in Fig. 1.

Figure. 1:

Conceptual components of the new paradigm of development of the hospitality industry of Ukraine

Conceptual components of the new paradigm of hospitality industry development, presented in Fig. 1, contain 4 blocks that define the driving forces, the direction of movement, the basis and development tools. Events unfolding in the east and south of Ukraine encourage the transformation of the hospitality sector. Fighting, the destruction of historical and cultural heritage sites and tourist infrastructure, the danger of staying in regions that were popular tourist destinations until 2022, and the impoverishment of the population - all this prompts a rethinking and reboot of the hospitality sector. The focus of attention is on the central regions of Ukraine, where, under the conditions of security and tripartite social dialogue, it is possible to develop small businesses and family-type hospitality establishments focused on the development of rural, “green”, Slow-tourism based on the principles of financial availability, social and environmental responsibility.

In order to solve the outlined problems and implement the components of the presented paradigm, a number of complex actions must be implemented that will promote fruitful partnership and high-quality cooperation between the state and the owners of hospitality industry enterprises, as well as the local community. The main task will be the creation of a joint regional development strategy to overcome crisis situations.

For the recovery of the hospitality and tourism industry after the war, it is important to combine two aspects - the effective use of the national tourism development policy and the perspective of regional development. That is, the basis of the state tourism development policy should be the application of regional development mechanisms and the cooperation of the state, the private sector and the population, which will guarantee the economic recovery of both the regions and the entire country in general. The basis of this cooperation will be active cooperation between different countries, regions, businesses and entrepreneurs for common benefit (Motsa et al., 2022).

Considering today, it is possible to highlight the main threats and challenges to the development of industry and tourism in Ukraine:

• –

  deficit or complete absence of tourist flow to Ukraine;

• –

  lack of flow of investments in the Ukrainian tourism industry;

• –

  lack of security in many regions of the country;

• –

  adverse environmental situation, including mining of a significant territory of Ukraine;

• –

  temporary or complete closure of hospitality and tourism enterprises;

• –

  significant destruction of hospitality and tourism infrastructure, cultural and historical buildings, theatres, museums, etc.;

• –

  destruction and theft of movable cultural values of Ukraine;

• –

  lack of information about tourist facilities and their current state in many regions and cities of Ukraine;

• –

  limited network of tourist information;

• –

  non-modern classification system of accommodation facilities;

• –

  lack of an automated system for collecting and analysing tourism statistics, which is critically important for assessing the state of the industry, the amount of revenues and losses of the industry, and the potential for creating a national tourism policy;

• –

  absolute absence of flights in the airspace of Ukraine.

• –

  At the same time, the main prospects of the hospitality and tourism industry in Ukraine will be (National Council for the Restoration of Ukraine from the consequences of war, 2022):

• –

  the use of the international information field, which is currently filled with news about Ukraine, which makes it possible to highlight the current situation and note the high tourism potential of the country after the war;

• –

  preparation of a communication strategy with a focus on the international market;

• –

  formation of a new positive image of the country;

• –

  creation of conditions for investment attraction;

• –

  updating the material and technical base and fixed assets of hospitality industry establishments;

• –

  development and implementation of national standards in accordance with international service and quality standards in the hospitality industry; and

• –

  expansion of the list of additional services in hospitality establishments based on their specialisation.

The implementation of these plans will provide the prospect of ensuring the stable development of hospitality industry enterprises, increasing and diversifying the volume of hospitality services, and increasing the number and expanding the contingent of buyers of these services, both at the expense of domestic consumers and foreign tourists.

Researching the competitive strategy of hospitality industry services is one of the significant mechanisms for the formation of sustainable development of hospitality enterprises and the improvement of their economic activity. Determining weaknesses and possible threats to the hospitality and tourism industry through the use of an integrated approach will make it possible to develop an effective strategy for the activities of such enterprises in periods of crisis and unexpected situations, such as economic crises, pandemics, and military actions.

The conducted research can be divided into two stages. During the first stage, an analysis of the existing literature was carried out, which made it possible to identify unexplored parts of the problem. Thus, our study confirms the conclusions of scientists (Tsai et al., 2009) that the competitiveness of a tourist destination will depend on its location and the level of economic development of the territory. Most of the Ukrainian tourist destinations that are geographically at the epicentre of hostilities cannot be restored soon.

It has also been confirmed (Molina, 2021) that political instability is the main obstacle to moving forward on many issues. The war in Ukraine destroyed, or reduced the pace of development of all sectors of the economy, showed a decrease in the competitiveness of the hospitality sector most of all in the affected regions.

The results of previous sociological studies by Zhuravka et al. (2023) regarding the problems of the functioning of hospitality enterprises during the war also turned out to be identical with our findings.

The second stage of the research was devoted to the definition of methods of analysis and the direct formation of the results and conclusions of the conducted work.

The previous works of the authors (Zavarika & Zelenko, 2022), which related to the analysis of damage to the tourism sector, the number of numerous destructions and violations of the tourist potential, became the basis for conducting this study, as they made it possible to use actual statistical material of destruction by regions of Ukraine. Unfortunately, we had to confirm the previous assumption regarding the decrease in the competitiveness of the hospitality sector in Ukraine, caused primarily by active military operations on its territory. The hostilities caused not only great physical damage but also prevented the implementation of initiatives that were designed to create a sustainable social partnership based on tripartite social dialogue between the authorities, business and the community at the regional level.

A significant problem during the research was the lack of information, not only statistical data but also general information on certain regions of the country.

The negative prerequisites mentioned above are the main obstacle to implementing the proposed scientific research results.

The conducted research made it possible to conclude that the competitiveness of the hospitality sector is one of the priority tasks of the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine.

Qualitatively increasing the level of competitiveness in the field of hospitality and tourism is a leading task of the economy of modern Ukraine. Increasing competitive advantages will allow the creation of a complex, systematic and high-quality tourist product, which will give an opportunity to present to an even larger circle of visitors the assets of such areas as tangible and intangible cultural heritage, authentic gastronomy, and a unique natural environment. Strengthening the competitiveness of hospitality industry enterprises has a positive effect on such aspects as: the increase in the number of tourists, the development and improvement of tourist destinations, the level of employment of the population, the profitability of the tourism business, and also makes it possible to expand the ways of integration of Ukrainian hospitality enterprises into the global hospitality industry and have a positive impact on attracting investments in the tourism market of Ukraine.

It is vitally important to direct efforts to ensure that visitors to Ukraine have not only access to viewing cultural, historical and natural objects but also world standards of hospitality, infrastructure improvement, adequate pricing policy, and most importantly - safety.

For the post-war restoration of the hospitality industry and the competitiveness of its services in Ukraine, it will be appropriate to implement such measures as: restoration of tourist infrastructure, formation of directories of destroyed and destroyed objects and archives of memory, development of programs for the restoration and development of natural and cultural monuments, attraction of investments in the field of hospitality, creation of programs for restoration and development of resorts and sanatoriums, reconstruction of destroyed and damaged objects of the hospitality industry; development of inbound and domestic tourism, promotion of information about the tourist potential of Ukraine, by conducting information campaigns in European countries and the world about the post-war prospects of the Ukrainian tourism sphere and the hospitality industry, supporting interest in Ukraine through various all-Ukrainian and international cultural, tourist, sports, advertising events, creating an information platform for tourists who are interested in traveling to places of active hostilities, holding information tours of places of memory for Ukrainian and foreign mass media and public opinion leaders, etc.

Therefore, in order to solve modern problems and prevent their impact on the level of competitiveness of services of the hospitality industry of Ukraine, it is necessary to rely on the support of national and international organisations through the formation and implementation of various projects and programs for the restoration and development of the hospitality industry, considering and implementing the experience of other countries that had in their history of similar military, political and economic problems.

The conducted research contributed to the accumulation of existing knowledge about the competitiveness of the hospitality sector on the basis of social dialogue during the war in a warring country. As a result of the study, a change in the scientific paradigm was revealed in the direction of finding new alternative tourist destinations. This made it possible to form the conceptual components of a new paradigm for the development of the tourism and hospitality industry of Ukraine, including hostilities in the east and south of Ukraine; destruction of objects of historical and cultural heritage and tourist infrastructure; inaccessibility of old tourist destinations in the south of the country; search for alternative tourist destinations in the central regions of Ukraine; social dialogue at the community level with the involvement of authorities, hospitality businesses and the local population; small business; handicrafts and craft productions; rural, “green” and Slow-tourism; social and environmental responsibility of all participants in the tourist service process.

In prospective studies, it is necessary to focus attention on the development of specific ways of post-war recovery of the tourism sector in various regions, which will gradually contribute to increasing the competitiveness of the hospitality sector in Ukraine. Also, taking into account the very changing conditions of today, attention should be focused on the importance of Ukraine’s experience in restoring tourism activities and increasing the competitiveness of the hospitality sector on the basis of social dialogue after military actions for the whole world and the ideas of renewing the scientific paradigm, which occurs as a result of modern transformational processes.

The presented study highlights the results of scientific work related to the scientific topic of the Department of International Economy and Tourism of the Eastern Ukrainian National University named after Volodymyr Dahl (Restoration of the national tourism industry and the sphere of hospitality through social dialogue in the regions of Ukraine, No. 0123U102229).