TOURISM SPHERE, TOURISM INDUSTRY, AND TOURISM BRANCH: INTERPRETATION AND INTERRELATION OF CONCEPTS

Abstract

The article examines the content and relationship of “tourism sphere”, “tourism industry”, and “tourism branch” concepts. Their main characteristics are determined and the peculiarities of interpretation in scientific literature and regulatory documents are analyzed. The relevance of the study is due to the lack of a single approach to defining these concepts, which creates difficulties in scientific research, state regulation and statistical accounting of tourism activities. The main scientific approaches to defining tourism are considered and it is proposed to consider it as a complex concept that includes not only the individual visitor, but also enterprises that create conditions for comfortable recreation and the state that creates attractive conditions for enterprises in the tourism sector, and they, in turn, create comfortable conditions for visitors to restore their psycho-emotional and physical strength. It has been established that the tourism sphere is an environment for the formation of state policy, where the legal, organizational and socio-economic principles of the functioning of tourism and other types of economic activities business entities are determined, which, in consolidation with tourism resources, create a tourism product, contributing to the effective preservation and development of the historical and cultural potential of the state, environmental protection, increasing the level of national economy innovation, influencing the harmonization of international relations. In contrast, the tourism industry is more focused on tourism and related organizations in harmony and synthesis with the natural environment, man-made and non-man-made cultural monuments and the heritage of the people. As for the tourism branch, it is a set of operating business entities that directly influence and ensure the intensive development of related sectors of the economy and the development of the tourism sector infrastructure. The mechanism of the relationship between tourism sphere, tourism industry, and tourism branch in the process of forming a complex tourism product is visualized. The results of the study can be used to improve the terminological base of tourism, develop strategies for the development of the tourism sector, and form an effective system for managing tourism activities.