External environment transformation of Ukraine's tourist enterprises during the crisis

Abstract

Purpose: to identify trends in Ukraine's tourism enterprises' external environment to increase their competitiveness and stability in the relevant industry market. Design/Method/Approach of the research: Theoretical generalization, method of abstraction, expert assessments, PEST-analysis, factor analysis, graphical method. Findings: The research studies the changes in the external environment of tourist enterprises during the pandemic crisis. The critical factors of such enterprises' external environment are revealed based on considering their importance and the influence direction on the competitiveness of tourist business units. The paper covers the most significant negative and positive trends of changes in Ukraine's tourist enterprises' external environment. The authors provided recommendations for strategic planning of tourist business units' competitiveness. Practical implications: The research results allow identifying areas for increasing the competitiveness of national tourism enterprises and effectively adapting to the external environment's transformations during the crisis in the globalized social and economic space. Originality/Value: Based on the expert assessment, the authors proposed an expanded factors list of the external environment of national tourism enterprises, which, in contrast to the existing ones, consider the crisis's negative consequences. PEST-analysis clusters of environmental factors allowed to identify with a significant positive or negative impact on the competitiveness of tourism enterprises. Research limitations/Future research: The research results provide a basis for further study of the external macro- and micro-environment of tourism enterprises at the local, regional, and national levels. And for element-by-element SWOT-analysis of tourism enterprises during the pandemic crisis. Paper type: theoretical.