The current state and prospects for the development of "dark" tourism in Ukraine

Abstract

"Dark" tourism can be considered one of the leading branches of tourism, which is gaining more and more popularity every year. With changing human preferences and new trends, "dark tourism" provides customers with new and unique experiences. The main reasons that encourage tourists to travel to "dark" places are the desire to get new experiences; familiarize yourself with the history of your country or any other country; patriotism; adventurism; memory. In general, among Ukrainian scientists, "dark" tourism remains an understudied field. At the same time, it is clear that Ukraine has a high resource potential for the development of this type of tourism, and we are observing an increase in tourist flows to visit objects of "dark" tourism, which was confirmed by the SWOT analysis. However, despite the positive prerequisites, there remain a number of problems that inhibit its development, but can be eliminated in the future with state support. In the future, the sector of "dark" tourism can contribute to the restoration of destroyed territories by selling a specific tourism product to supporters from other countries. Therefore, demand research, sentiment analysis and risk analysis regarding the development of tourism are vital to help the recovery of the Ukrainian economy and determine the role of tourism in this process, after the cessation of hostilities.