Comparative analysis of the regional markets of cultural and cognitive tourism development in Ukraine

The purpose of the article is an implementation of the comparative analyses of development of regional markets of cultural and cognitive tourism in Ukraine. The theoretical and methodological basis of research is the ideas of the theory of tourism, theory of management, works of the leading native and foreign scholars regarding the development of the touristic services market. To achieve the desired goal, the following research methods were used: the system and complex analyses (for determination of the development tendencies of the regional markets of the cultural and cognitive tourism in Ukraine); calculation-analytical and comparative methods (for determination of the centers of the regional markets of the cultural and cognitive tourism in Ukraine); cartographical method (for visual demonstration of the emphasized touristic regions of the cultural and cognitive tourism in Ukraine). The regionalized territory of Ukraine according to the development of the cultural and cognitive tourism, which is based on the calculation of average data of the quantity of the museums according to the regions, analysis of their visitations and of the volume of the tourist flows permitted to emphasize four formed regions of the cultural and cognitive tourism: Western, including Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, Chernivtsi, Zakarpattia, Volyn, Rivne and Khmelnytsk regions; Northern - city of Kyiv and Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Vinnytsia, Kirovohrad regions; Eastern - Kharkiv, Sumy, Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Luhansk regions; Southern - Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Odesa regions. The conducted analyses of the emphasized regions permitted emphasize the modern tendencies of development of the cultural and cognitive tourism market in Ukraine, namely: the availability of substantial disparity of its development according to the regions of Ukraine; refocusing of the touristic flows from the South-Eastern regions to the North-Western as a result of annexation of Crimea and military conflict in the east of Ukraine; the sustained development of the cultural and cognitive tourism of the North region at the expense of the extensive diversification of the available offer and possibility to meet the requirements of all groups of tourists; the highest rates of development of the cultural and cognitive tourism in the West region caused by the attraction of the tourists from the other regions of Ukraine with activation of the natural and historical advantages use.