EVENT TOURISM IN GERMANY: EXPERIENCE FOR UKRAINE

The article describes and analyzes the event tourism in Germany, in particular its component and geographical structure. It is also possibilities of using German experience for Ukraine are highlighted. Germany, which suffered a total economy destruction after the Second World War, rebuilt one of the world's largest industries of tourism. This experience is extremely important and relevant for modern Ukraine, which is confidently heading towards EU membership. The analysis of researched topic latest publications was carried out and it were established insufficient coverage of this issue in domestic scientific literature. Therefore, the purpose of the article is to study the experience of organizing event tourism in Germany. The main tasks of the article are formulated as follows: to characterize the current state of event tourism in Germany; to study the factors influencing the state and development of event tourism in Germany; to find out the problems and outline the prospects for the development of German’s event tourism; to describe the possibility of using the conducted research in tourism industry practice and science. Note that in the article understand event tourism as a trip with the purpose of participating in or observing a certain event (carnival, festival, holiday, ceremony, sports competition or natural phenomenon, etc.), which requires the availability of appropriate tourist resources and special training. Event tourism plays an important role in the development of the country's economy and the creation of new job places. The current research is based on international statistics, in particular UNWTO statistics. Thus, it was established that Germany is one of the leaders among European countries in tourism industry development, including event tourism. The COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on the event tourism development dynamics. Nowadays, there are a number of restrictions, but the industry is rapidly recovering. External and internal factors that positively and negatively affect the development of event tourism in Germany have been studied. The German’s event tourism SWOT-analysis were carried out to determine development prospects, based on advantages and disadvantages A PEST-analysis was used for a detailed parsing of the external factors influence. The degree of these factors impact was determined by the method of expert evaluation on a 5-point scale. In particular, it was established factors that have the greatest impact on the event tourism development. They are: - political: restriction of movement across borders, introduction of visa regime and consequences of COVID-19; - economic: low level of income of the population due to the pandemic; - social: low educational level, culture and level of employment; - technological: introduction of a remote form of service provision. Thus, event tourism has not only cultural, but also socio-economic significance for the development of tourism in Germany. The most popular are music, gastronomic and film festivals, as well as sports events. The country's government actively supports the development of this tourism type, as it leads to an increase in revenues to local budgets and is an effective tool for forming local and global positive image. Summarizing the results of the study are presented in the article, confirm the importance of Germany experience for Ukraine and can be used in practice. Keywords: tourism, event tourism, experience, Ukraine, Germany