Geography of visitors to the historical and cultural heritage of the Carpathian region and prospects for the growth of tourist flows

The purpose of this research is to assess the geography of visitors, problems and prospects for the growth of tourist flows of cultural and historical heritage on the example of Ivano-Frankivsk and Transcarpathian regions along the cross-border highway. The subject of the research is the analysis of the results of sociological research of historical and cultural heritage sites, assessment of the geography of visitors, problems and prospects for tourism flows, the state of use of cultural heritage sites in the studied region and their development as tourist attractions. The object of research is the system of tourist services provided by tourist sites of historical and cultural heritage, represented by historical and cultural reserves, museums, sacred buildings and other attractive cultural sites. The scientific novelty of the study is that development trends, problems, prospects for tourist flows in historical and cultural heritage of the Carpathian region of Ukraine were identified for the first time by analyzing the results of sociological research through a survey of a representative sample. Methodologically, according to the authors of the article, the study conducted with voluntary information from persons who work, manage or own a tourist facility is the most accurate, as it includes the expert assessment of persons who are permanently on the site. According to the results, the number of visits to most tourist sites does not exceed 5,000 people per year. The only facility that has received more than 100,000 visitors in the last two pandemic years is the attractive Hutsul Land in Bukovel. Geography of domestic tourists - the vast majority are tourists from Lviv, Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv region and the capital city (Kyiv). Geography of foreign visitors - the vast majority are tourists from Poland, Germany, USA, Hungary, Slovakia. More than half of the facilities in the survey are free for tourists, and the cost of a third of the facilities is not more than two dollars. The main problems for the growth of tourist flows are underdeveloped infrastructure as a significant barrier to the development of the tourist facility, insufficient finances for development; insufficient number of attractions within the facilities, insufficient number of cultural events held in tourist destinations. Insufficient advertising of a tourist sites closes the top five problems. Such data indicate the need to develop tourist facilities, provide management of institutions with more information about services and ways to increase the attractiveness of facilities and increase their monetization. The ways to solve the problems of the development of tourist facilities, according to their management, are the need for additional funding; solving problems with the infrastructure tourist destinations; the need to improve advertising; cooperation with tour operators, etc.