Tourists from Canada as priority customers of the Ukrainian tourism product
Tourists from Canada as priority customers of the Ukrainian tourism product

Summary/Abstract: Introduction. As a result of the revolutionary events and the military conflict in Donbas in 2014, the number of inbound tourists travelling to Ukraine has dropped almost twice - from 24.7 million in 2013 to 12.7 million in 2014. Ukraine has faced a challenge related to the need for reorienting and diversifying of inbound tourism flows and the need to enter new tourism markets. One of the top priorities is the outbound Canadian tourism market. Ukrainian Diaspora, long-standing strong international ties, visa-free entry for Canadian citizens and ratification of the Free Trade Agreement, intense diplomatic relations and the launch of direct flight create the basis for the growth of tourist flows from Canada to Ukraine. It is necessary to conduct professional and thorough research of the Canadian outbound tourism market in order to increase tourist flows, as well as the revenues to the Ukrainian economy from the tourism industry in the context of creating and promoting targeted Ukrainian tourism products for a Canadian tourist. Purpose. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Canadian travel market in the context of the target audience consuming the Ukrainian tourism product and to define the recommendations for the «Canada-Ukraine» tourism flow. Results. The article analyses the outbound tourism market of Canada as a priority target audience of consumers of the Ukrainian tourism product. The factors of the huge volume of the outbound tourism market of Canada have been presented. The state and growth rates of existing Canada-Ukraine tourist flows have been analysed. The competitive advantages of the Canadian tourism market in comparison with the Ukrainian one have been given, namely: safety, protection of natural resources and ecology, institutional capacity of tourism industry development. The favourable factors for increasing the inflow of tourist flow from Canada to Ukraine, such as numerous Ukrainian Diaspora, positive attitude of Canadians towards Ukraine, visa-free entry for the Canadian citizens to Ukraine; intensification of diplomatic and trade relations, the launch of the direct flight Kyiv-Toronto, have been defined and characterised. The peculiarities of a potential Canadian tourist, who is a representative of the Ukrainian Diaspora, have been analysed. The main channels of popularisation of the Ukrainian tourism product have been researched: the organisation of the Ukrainian community of Canada, the Ukrainian media in Canada. The main tourism exhibitions in Canada, fan trips and press tours for the Canadian tour operators and the Canadian media; hosting the «Days of Ukraine in Canada» in the main places where most of the Ukrainian Diaspora representatives live. Conclusions. Recommendations for tourist travel agencies who plan to work with the Canadian consumer of the Ukrainian tourism product have been formulated. The resort and recreational types of tourism should not be the basis of Ukrainian tourist products for the Canadians because of their non-competitiveness in comparison with Canadian tourist products. A trip to Ukraine will be more in demand if tourism products combine Ukrainian and European tourist products («Ukraine +»). This may be a joint tourism product with neighbouring countries: Ukraine + Poland, Ukraine + Hungary, Ukraine + Romania, Ukraine + Slovakia. When forming a combined tourism product, it is necessary to take into account the availability of convenient logistics (direct flights ideally) and Canadian tourist traffic to the chosen European country/city.

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