Economy, finances, management: Topical issues of science and practical activity

HOLOVNYA Olena – Doctor of Economic Sciences, Associate Professor, Associate Professor of the Department of International Management, Hotel and Restaurant Business and Tourism, Vinnytsia National Agrarian University (е-mail: ellens@meta.ua).

Today, the hotel and restaurant industry has become an integral part of the national economies of most countries of the world. The hotel and restaurant industry attracts attention as an independent component of the structure of the national economy. This industry is a locomotive of Ukraine's economic development and can provide significant technical, commercial and social benefits.

In this regard, the priority is to determine the current trends in the hotel and restaurant industry, which is important for the effective functioning of the national economy of Ukraine.

In a context of currency devaluation, and due to its rich cultural and recreational potential, Ukraine can become an attractive destination for foreign tourists at low prices. All this has a positive impact on the hotel market.

In Ukraine, the volume of investment in the tourism industry has halved since 2010 and today accounts for up to 2% of total investment, which is significantly lower than in the countries of Eastern and Central Europe. For most countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the annual volume of investment in the tourist industry has remained unchanged since 2010. Poland (+23%), Czech Republic (+22%) and Romania (+22%) showed the largest increase in investments.

In terms of investment, the hotel market is significantly different from other segments of commercial real estate. So, if for rental income owners of office and shopping centers sign medium-term and long-term contracts (at least 1 year), the receipt of income from operating activities of hotels is related to the daily strategy of the owner to attract and retain the hotel guests and find a healthy balance between revenues from rooms, cafes and restaurants, as well as other services offered by the hotel and expenses for them.

As it is known, capital investment is the cost of acquiring new ones (as well as those that were in use), self-made for the own use of tangible and intangible assets; the cost of major repairs and upgrades. The development of capital investment in the hotel and restaurant industry in January-December 2017 increased compared to the same period in 2016.

The main source of financing capital investments remains the own funds of enterprises and organizations, which accounts for 69.9% of the total volume.

It is in view of the fact that for the effective management of the hotel necessary specific knowledge, as well as because the operating parameters of the hotel depend on many difficult predicted factors, the expected profitability of hotels is always 1-1,5% higher than for the best office or commercial centers.

Almost complete absence of transactions in the segment of hotel real estate in Ukraine testifies to differences of expectations of owners and investors. Unfortunately, in most cases, in the process of formation of the price, the owners reset from the incurred funds, and not from the results of operating activities of hotels, which in turn does not suit potential investors.

The indicator of profitability in the sphere of hotel and restaurant economy characterizes the attractiveness of business in this area for entrepreneurs. This indicator is one of the main criteria for assessing the efficiency of the enterprise. Between 2014 and 2016, the profitability of the enterprises of the hotel and restaurant business in Ukraine increased from -25.8% to -0.8%.

In Kyiv among the analyzed cities, the lowest occupancy rate is 45.3%. At the same time, the average actual value of the highest number among the countries analyzed is 92.7 €, which indicates the imbalance of supply in the Ukrainian hotel services market. Political and economic instability in recent years, along with a significant increase in the number of offers, exert significant pressure on tariffs, while the hotel's occupancy rate and the current crisis did not exceed 60%.

The bulk of the demand for hotel services is formed at the expense of representatives of the business segment (about 80% of them come from abroad, the remaining 20% – from regions of Ukraine). Their share is on average 65-80%, representatives of group and individual tourism form the rest.

The negative impact on hotel business is also due to the fact that in the global booking systems Ukraine has been designated as a country whose entry is not recommended in terms of security, similar information is also available on the embassies' websites of some countries.

Also, the low renting rooms in hotels can be explained not only by the unstable situation in the country, but also by the fact that in Ukraine the market of shadow services has been actively developing for several years now. Owners of apartments will specially equip them for the reception of foreign tourists for a short term. As a rule, private traders provide guests with a full range of additional services: they provide their transport, translator (if required), meals and other services. With low fixed costs and, often without paying taxes, "shadow" people receive sufficient working capital to maintain high quality services and expand business. In addition, the shady hotel business has the ability to flexibly operate prices depending on the demand and the season, it is beyond the scope of state regulation, so it does not face additional costs.

In order to accelerate the development of the hotel and restaurant industry in Ukraine, the state should: provide tourists with comfortable and safe conditions for their arrival in Ukraine; to carry out an effective policy of development of mass tourism, to work out the corresponding concept; reduce hotel fees; to take measures to improve the state of monuments and create new objects of mass tourism; to make changes to land use laws, to the rules for issuing relevant permits to related industries, in order to attract investment in opening new recreational centers; create opportunities for the construction and operation of small motels and family-friendly hotels, which will provide jobs for the population and can be a source of foreign exchange earnings.

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