SPA-INDUSTRY AS DETERMINANT OF DEVELOPMENT OF MEDICAL TOURISM

Abstract

The article deals with the topical issue of the peculiarities of the formation, functioning and development prospects of the SPA industry as one of the directions of medical tourism. The main goal of the article is to analyze the current state of development of the SPA industry. Informative and analytical methods, comparative, statistical, predictive, etc. methods were used during the scientific research. The work states that recently there is a need to take measures to stimulate the development of spa resorts, which is based on the application of innovative approaches. Competition encourages spa establishments to create new products, use new innovative marketing technology and sales channels, reach new target groups of consumers. In the conditions of the structural restructuring of the economy of Ukraine, the improvement of the forms and methods of regulating the development of the spa-resort sector is of particular importance. An effective mechanism for stimulating the development of this area is the attraction of investments through public-private partnership schemes. The Ukrainian SPA has absorbed various elements of the global SPA industry, but the main factor of development remains national traditions, the national school of resort science. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the fact that, based on the processing of significant analytical material, the effectiveness of the functioning of the SPA industry as medical tourism in Ukraine is substantiated, and the development of the resort as an ecopolis is substantiated. The practical significance of the obtained results lies in the fact that it has been proven on the basis of the activities of the leading spa centers in the resort cities of Ukraine that the diversity and unique combination of natural resources of spa resorts is the basis for the creation of sound spa methods, programs and concepts of recreation, health and aesthetics . This gives reason to assert that it is necessary to carry out measures to stimulate the development of spa resorts based on the use of innovative approaches, which will further give an impetus to the development of medical tourism, both national and international. The article states that the basis of the further development of spa resorts of Ukraine should be ecological and economic nature management, state control and regulation of conservation, effective use, economic reproduction of unique natural healing resources of Ukraine with the possibility of creating an ecopolis.