Competitiveness of Travel and Tourism Sector in Greece and Ukraine: Comparative Analysis

The study considers competitive advantages and weaknesses of travel and tourism sectors in Greece and Ukraine. There is a divergence in the sector performance indicators and competitive advantages between the countries. Travel and tourism industry accounts for 7.6% GDP in Greece and only 1.4% in Ukraine. In recent years competitiveness of the sector in Greece improved by several indicators. Meanwhile the travel and tourism industry of Ukraine encountered major challenges under economic crisis and hybrid war initiated by Russia (including losing control over 30% of registered collective accommodation facilities). Both countries prioritized raising price competitiveness instead of further tourism services infrastructure development and business environment improvement relatively to the rest of the world. At the same time Greece made progress in safety and security, industry specific support, environmental protection and ground transport infrastructure development, while Ukraine favoured improvements in human and cultural resources. Greece was able to increase international tourism receipts and especially international tourist arrivals, which fits the forecasts. According to our estimation in Ukraine international tourism receipts are 3-4 times less than the potential level under keeping territorial integrity and no crisis scenario. Nowadays there is a clear imbalance in bilateral tourist flows between Greece and Ukraine in favour of visiting Greece. There is a potential for increasing the bilateral tourism links and several policy recommendations are made for that.