Managing the efficiency and competitiveness of hotel, restaurant and tourism enterprises in Ukraine during the war

. In each case, the tactics and strategy of management are complemented by other tools and mechanisms, depending on the conditions of accommodation, specialisation, and life cycle of a particular enterprise. However, the war has also led to the emergence of new circumstances for the functioning of hotel, restaurant and tourism enterprises. The purpose of the article is to substantiate and develop new and improve the existing directions, mechanisms and tools for managing the efficiency and competitiveness of


INTRODUCTION
In the last decades of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, the functioning of the hotel and restaurant business and its business entities in Ukraine and other countries of the world has taken an increasingly significant place in the structure of national economic complexes in terms of their share in gross and national domestic product (GDP, NDP).However, due to the coverage of large masses of the population with services, their activities require certain compliance and are accompanied by significant risks and restrictions.Therefore, the issues of availability and preservation of certain competitive advantages, efficiency and competitiveness of hotel, restaurant and tourism enterprises, structural factors and management strategies as a condition for their successful functioning and development in a market economy are constantly relevant and even increasingly so.
There are many valuable and informative scientific publications on this issue, but there are practically no comprehensive studies of hotel, restaurant and tourism enterprises as integration entities or jointly operating enterprises that combine the functions of accommodation, catering and tourism.Nevertheless, the problems of functioning and development of hotel, restaurant and tourism enterprises in Ukraine are in the focus of constant attention of scientists and practitioners.For example, in the publication by L. Marmul et al. (2020), the research and its results are focused on establishing regional features of accommodation and management of the development of hotel and restaurant business and tourism as activities.An important role is given to assessing the natural potential for tourism business development and the location of its enterprises; assessing the innovativeness of the tourism product and justifying the introduction of innovations to improve tourism efficiency and the quality of tourism services.Less studied are the risks of tourism and, especially, hotel and restaurant activities.In the work of V. Yarovyy & V. Yurchenko (2021), the subject of research is tourist destinations, their identification, specialisation and use in peacetime.
Article by V. Danylenko-Kulchytska (2022) is devoted to assessing the state of the hotel and restaurant business in Ukraine during the war.The article identifies a list of reasons that led to its significant reduction and destruction; defines the principles of possible recovery and substantiates measures to restore activities, taking into account the experience of European countries that experienced military operations, although without total destruction of infrastructure.U. Huzar & A. Levchuk (2023) analysed the activities of restaurant enterprises in Ukraine during the war.The authors focus on the enormous losses of the restaurant business and examples of its recovery in the format of small restaurants and cafes, as well as an analysis of the activities of relocated enterprises.I. Levytska & A. Klymchuk (2022) identify the main challenges and propose possible strategies for the survival of hotel and restaurant business enterprises.To increase the practical orientation of the proposals, the authors rank and group challenges and threats into general, specific and individual ones.The article by V. Tsaruk (2023) identifies the losses of tourism as a result of the war and the processes of diversification of tourist flows.The main focus of the recommendations for the future recovery of the industry is on marketing measures and public-private partnerships in Ukraine.
Hotel and restaurant enterprises largely determine the activities of other enterprises and types of activities, including furniture, textile, interior production, and tourism.Therefore, a comprehensive study of the competitiveness of hotel and restaurant and tourism enterprises in their interconnection, as well as their management, is of great importance not only for them as individual business entities, but also for the entire hotel and restaurant and tourism sector through synergistic effects for ensuring employment, holding various events, providing quality services to consumers, and filling local budgets.The purpose of the article was to identify new factors and problems of efficiency and competitiveness of hotel, restaurant and tourism enterprises and to substantiate the corresponding management mechanisms and instruments based on the identified circumstances, including military threats, and to establish trends in structural changes and clarify strategic development priorities.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The study used the following methods: scientific abstraction, historical, systematic approach, systematic and structural analysis and synthesis -to generalise and systematise views on the content, structure and features of tourism and hotel and restaurant enterprises in modern economic conditions; statistical, economic and economic-mathematical, extrapolation -to determine the economic efficiency and competitiveness of operation and to substantiate the strategic priorities for the development of these enterprises.The materials for the article were reviews of the functioning of hotel, restaurant and tourism enterprises and chains in Ukraine and in the world in recent years (2019-2023), including during the Russian war against Ukraine; monographic materials, personal observations of the authors.
Thus, based on the systematic approach and the historical method, general data on the functioning and development of hotel, restaurant and tourism enterprises in Ukraine and in the world were obtained.The system-structural analysis and synthesis made it possible to determine the structure and activities of hotel and restaurant enterprises, the content of tourism products and services; to summarise and group competitive advantages and risks and threats, including those brought by the war, by certain characteristics.Statistical, economic, and economic-mathematical methods made it possible to establish the main indicators of the hotel, restaurant, and tourism enterprises, to rank them, and to identify problems and development trends.The use of the extrapolation method along with them contributed to the development of proposals for the preservation and further functioning of hotel, restaurant and tourism enterprises in the context of war, especially taking into account its risks and threats.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Enterprises of the hotel, restaurant and tourism business are represented by business entities of various forms of ownership, size, organisation of business processes and specialisation.Thus, according to their property status, they can be state-owned, municipal, or private enterprises; companies (full, limited, closed, and open joint-stock companies; family and joint ventures).They are divided into small, medium and large enterprises by their size or dimensions.In terms of the form of business process organisation, they can be enterprises, holdings, hotel and tourism alliances, clusters organised under a franchise, etc.
According to the specifics of service provision, hotel and restaurant enterprises are divided into hostels, guesthouses, hotels, motels, apart-hotels, spa or resort hotels, boutique hotels, etc.By specialisation, these are tourist hotels for holidaymakers only and hotels for general use.At present, these can be one-, two-, three-, four-and fivestar hotels by category.The "restaurant" part of the hotel and restaurant business can also be classified according to the relevant criteria.According to the quality of services provided, they also have their own gradation and Michelin stars (Michelin stars..., 2019).As a rule, hotels have restaurants and bars, buffets, and takeaway services.Depending on the size of the hotel, there may be several of them.
According to E. Maslennikov (2021), the competitiveness of hotel, restaurant and tourism enterprises is considered as a result of the ratio of quality and price of their services, the use of competitive advantages, as well as the image, depending on these components.Its increase or decrease is influenced by both existing competitive advantages and their absence, as well as changes in their content.Thus, while before the full-scale Russian attack on Ukraine, the internal environment of the hotel, restaurant and tourism services industry was most influenced by the quality and cost of services and products that should be better than those offered by competitors in a particular market segment and enterprises, in 2022-2023, it was the security of their provision.
N. Vecepura & Yu.Zemlina (2021) include the following in this traditional list: interior of the premises; picturesque environment and landscape design of the accommodation area (if any); quality and range of services; loyalty policy and customer bonuses; professionalism, friendliness and education of the staff; prices, promotions and discounts; use of marketing strategies to promote products and services; introduction of innovations, especially digital technologies in sales, organisation and management; management efficiency.New security competitive advantages, which were previously considered impossible, have been added to the list.These include the availability of own well-equipped bomb shelters or proximity to them; and the equipment of locations with air defence systems.
The next group of factors that influence the competitiveness of hotel and restaurant business enterprises is formed by external components.These include, first of all, institutional factors, especially regulatory and legislative regulation; government and local decisions on compliance, restrictions, procedures and support for work during a pandemic, martial law, and normal operation; the structure and dynamics of the relevant market; competitors' activities, etc. Internal and, mostly, external factors are also identified in terms of influence -direct or indirect.
The latter include factors of income and effective demand of the population; traditional structure of income and expenses and the share of leisure funds in them; monetary, including currency policy; customs and tax regulation; socio-economic and military stability; inflation rate in the country; crime situation, bureaucracy, corruption and personal security guarantees.Knowledge, assessment and diagnostics of these and other factors and competitive advantages make it possible to make informed management decisions on the efficiency of functioning and increase competitiveness (Fonarova & Bushuiev, 2021).
In general, the above-mentioned internal and external factors and processes of functioning and development of hotel, restaurant and tourism enterprises are accumulated in the motivation of owners and staff to provide their services and consumers to accept them.At the same time, the motivation is complemented by moral and psychological or behavioural factors, which, unlike the previous ones, are difficult to quantify.These include fear for one's life, which does not contribute to the motivation to do business; fear of responsibility for someone else's life; consumer guilt towards those who cannot afford a holiday; business risks that cause uncertainty in work; indecision or inability to re-profile one's activities.
In business practice, the competitive advantages of the components of hotel and restaurant complexes may not coincide.For example, a restaurant needs high traffic to operate, while a hotel needs to be secluded and comfortable.In addition, meals in hotel restaurants can often be more expensive than in freestanding restaurants.This encourages hotel and restaurant enterprises to provide uniqueness, exclusivity, and other features to increase their attractiveness to consumers (Krukovska, 2022).
For restaurants, this means special menus or dishes; national cuisine days or masterclasses in the restaurant; author's cuisine; the work of famous chefs, etc. Ukraine is famous for its gastronomic culture and high-quality restaurant services.The national dish, Ukrainian borshch, has been recognised by UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage of world significance.According to the famous Ukrainian chef Yevhen Klopotenko, syrniki, dumplings with cherries, pancakes and many other dishes are next in line (Yeskova, 2022).However, there is not a single Michelin-rated catering establishment in Ukraine.Therefore, the potential for growth in this area is quite significant.
Hotels should also attract customers with special types of services.These include spa and beauty treatments, gym services, swimming pools in addition to the main ones; organisation of various cultural and artistic events and conferences; introduction of various loyalty programmes, incentives, attention and respect for holidaymakers; use or attraction of interesting tourist destinations in accommodation and in the course of operation -organisation of hikes, excursions, visits to unusual attractions.In synergy with restaurant services, this should provide a significant impetus to increase demand for their services, as well as for hotel and restaurant enterprises in general.
Ye. Kozlovsky et al. (2021) believe that tourism enterprises are essentially represented by three different categories: those that provide travel, accommodation and cater-ing services in various variations; those that provide purely tourism services; those that do not provide tourism services directly but are engaged in their development and organisation.The first group includes sanatoriums, boarding houses, recreation centres, motels, campsites, and equipped places for unorganised tourists.The second group is made up of tour bureaus, tourist clubs, local history clubs, naturalist stations, etc.The third group includes travel agents, agencies and tour operators.The latter are the most significant participants in the tourism services market.
Travel agencies have their own public organisation, the Ukrainian Association of Travel Agencies (UATA).As of 2021, 38 organisations were its members.The association's activities are aimed at improving travel services, sharing experiences, exhibitions, presentations abroad, and developing new travel products.The most well-known agencies are: Come with Us, Hot Tours Network, Mandarin, Mandruy, Merkaba, Pilgrim.There were 50 tour operators in the same year.The most significant of them are shown in Figure 1.Most of them had foreign participants, including Russian capital, such as Aneh Tour.In 2022, the most significant of them were Join Up, Coral Travel, ALF, TEZ Tour, and Eurotrips.The pandemic has had a detrimental impact on their operations, causing enormous losses due to the practical cessation of their activities.But the Russian invasion caused much more damage.It is about destroyed airports, damaged hotels and restaurants, offices and other property, roads, tourist attractions, mined forests and coasts, loss of personnel, etc. Suffice it to say that the global economy lost USD 14 billion due to the war in Ukraine.The number of flights has fallen even in neighbouring countries due to the war.For example, in Moldova, it dropped by 69%, in Slovenia -by 42%, in Latvia -by 38%, in Finland -by 36%, and in the Czech Republic -by 35%.In Ukraine, budget revenues from tourism decreased by 30% in 2022.The decline in campsites, campsites, and children's holiday camps was 60%; tour operators -35%; and travel agencies -27%.
In 2023, the situation worsened by another third compared to 2022.The number of companies in the industry also decreased by 34%.In 2022 alone, the number of foreign tourists decreased from 14-15 million to 2 million.Of these, 1 million are public activists, volunteers, and journalists.However, domestic tourism has partially resumed.Relatively safe western regions, especially Zakarpattia, Lviv, and Chernivtsi regions, have become popular among Ukrainians.They increased their tax revenues from tourism by 30-50%.Kyiv, on the other hand, reduced its tourism business activity in terms of taxes by 50%.The southern regions have almost lost it.In Kherson region, it is 0.3% of the pre-war level, in Mykolaiv region -30%, in Odesa region -7.9%.However, in monetary terms, the decline in tourism in Kyiv and Odesa region alone amounted to UAH 244.3 million, which could not cover the increase in the western regions of UAH 12.1 million (Smakota et al., 2023).
However, tourism has to revive one way or another.And by the time the war is over, revival strategies must be in place.The complex impact of all factors, regardless of the classification approaches to their assessment and consideration in competitiveness management, is evidenced by the certification of hotels by category, service (number of stars) and quality, as well as ranking within a particular category.Based on the number of stars, consumers and other stakeholders can judge the level of comfort and compliance with their expectations and plan their holiday budget.For example, a one-star hotel provides minimal amenities for a modest fee.It is booked by students, singles and other holidaymakers with a minimum budget.A two-star hotel is characterised by more amenities and may even have a dining room or breakfast buffet and slightly more expensive services (Fedyshyn & Boiko, 2023).
As a rule, hotels in Europe operate in the 3-5* certification range.A three-star hotel implies the availability of sanitary facilities in each room and other amenities at a fairly reasonable price.A four-star hotel means an even higher level of comfort in the rooms (from 16.0 sq m) and the availability of public facilities such as a gym, swimming pool, parking for guests' vehicles, and daily housekeeping.A five-star hotel has the same level of comfort as the previous category level, but it has the following advantages: more spacious rooms (from 18.0 m 2 ), beautiful views from the windows; additional facilities and services in the form of conference rooms, small shops or boutiques, exhibitions, several and restaurants, a swimming pool and a sauna; round-the-clock concierge service and room service; beauty salons; excellent menus; a nightclub (Yakushev, 2020).
When forming and managing competitiveness at the level of hotel and restaurant enterprises, it is important to substantiate tactical and strategic management decisions and their optimal combination.Thus, the relevant institutions of Ukraine received a significant impetus to upgrade and improve the quality of work in the form of a major international event -the European Football Championship in 2012.This was especially true for the cities hosting the main football matches (Kyiv, Donetsk, Lviv and Kharkiv), as well as the routes of the main tourist flows of fans.At the same time, Ukraine invested EUR 12 billion in infrastructure, compared to EUR 20 billion in the second host country, Poland.Revenues from tourism increased by 40.0% to almost UAH 7 billion.The number of people staying in hotels has increased significantly.In Kyiv alone, it grew from 1.1 to 1.5 million people.At the then exchange rate (UAH 7.99 per dollar), this amounted to approximately EUR 700 million or USD 475 million.UEFA's (Union of European Football Associations) revenue from the 2012 Championship was in line with the target of EUR 1.4 billion, of which the hospitality industry accounted for the smallest share of EUR 100 million or 14.0%.Media and commercial rights and tickets made up the rest.Other large-scale events of international importance in Ukraine that contributed to the development of the hotel and restaurant industry were the Eurovision Song Contests in 2005 and 2017.Thus, the costs of the latter contest amounted to UAH 603 million or EUR 20.4 million, while the revenues were UAH 72.5 million or EUR 2.5 million, i.e. 8.3 times less (UEFA revenues from..., 2012).
It should be noted that even with a well-developed network of competitive hotel and restaurant enterprises, including leading global brands and national chains (Radisson SAS, Hilton, Intercontinental, Fairmont, Hyatt, Rixos, Ibis, Premier, Reikartz, etc.); modern airports and other transport hubs and centres; comprehensive implementation of advanced digital technologies in their work; rich history and culture; excellent gastronomic traditions, the tourism and recreation business, especially international, has significant potential for development (Maslihan et al., 2022).It is constrained not only by the limitations of the war years (2022-2023), but also by insufficient marketing and information drives and actions at the state, regional and local levels of organisation; military operations in Donbas; insufficient level of service and insufficient size of the middle-class hotel segment; and extremely uneven distribution of hotels in the country.Thus, the vast majority of international class hotels are concentrated in the capital of Ukraine -Kyiv.A few of them are represented in cities that are resort and recreational centres and in major regional centres such as Dnipro, Lviv, Odesa and Kharkiv.The situation is much worse in regional and, especially, district centres.In general, there are 1.1 hotel rooms per 1,000 inhabitants in Ukraine, while in Poland it is 2.2 and in France -10.8 (Dyakonova et al., 2021).This encourages the comprehensive development of hotels and hotel chains, and raising their class.According to the data of the well-known Internet platform Booking.com(n.d.), there are enough hotels of a high level of star rating in the country, a significant number of uncertified accommodation and not enough three-star hotels.According to G. Myskiv & S. Nycz-Wojtan (2022), convenient and modern booking systems have the potential to become a tool for marketing tourism services, and therefore it is necessary to improve this process.
Compared to the previous ten-year period (2010-2020), in 2008 there were 1,218 hotel companies in Ukraine, and 3,200 hotels together with sanatoriums and boarding houses.Thus, there has been an increase of more than 3.0 times, and 930 hotels have been certified.The certification resulted in 30 one-star hotels, 43 two-star hotels, 66 three-star hotels, 22 four-star hotels and only 2 five-star hotels.Thus, the number of low-star hotels decreased by 1.4-3.5 times and the number of multi-star hotels increased by 4.2-21.5 times.However, a significant drawback is the presence of a significant number of hotels that do not have a category, and therefore cannot confirm the high quality of services, although they may be provided at a high level.Therefore, progress in this area is important for their competitiveness.However, the war has changed this reality.As of 2023, the hotel, restaurant, and tourism network in Donbas and Kherson was completely destroyed; the cities of Mykolaiv, Odesa, and Kharkiv were significantly damaged.
The industry was completely destroyed in the occupied territories.The hotels and restaurants, stadiums, transport routes, sports and other infrastructure that were built for EURO 2012 were destroyed or completely destroyed in 2022.However, the reconstruction of the industry needs to be planned now, taking into account the achievements of the past and avoiding previous miscalculations and the consequences of the war (Zhuravka et al., 2023).
Quite often, both in Ukraine and in other countries of the world (the European Union, Turkey, Egypt), one can observe that hotels of the same category located in the same place and even on the same street have different occupancy, profitability and profitability (Yakushev, 2020).This can be explained by differences in their construction, development history, famous guests, themed rooms dedicated to certain people, events, eras, and styles.There are also factors that are difficult to measure, such as the atmosphere, the friendliness of the staff, and the loyalty of the management and owners.In managing competitiveness, aspects of behavioural economics that relate to consumers should also be taken into account: the fashion for a particular hotel, service, city; the sense of prestige of a holiday, etc.
Tactical and strategic management decisions in managing the competitiveness of hotel and restaurant enterprises should address at least the following areas: ensuring that the administration of functioning is in line with institutional factors; comprehensive development of integration forms of activity to create greater efficiency, investment, profitability and quality of services, as demonstrated by large hotel alliances, networks and other integration associations; introduction of innovative, especially digital technologies in operational and organisational; training and improvement of staff and management; continuous monitoring, evaluation, diagnostics and forecasting of the hotel and restaurant services market, competitors, consumer demands and behaviour; application of the latest marketing techniques, technologies and strategies to promote products and services, including branding and rebranding; forms of investment, accommodation and lodging, such as apart-hotels, purchase of rooms for permanent use and subleases, etc.
Thus, in order to manage the competitiveness of hotel and restaurant and tourism enterprises, not only tactical but also strategic management decisions are important.At the same time, there are many strategies for achieving and developing certain competitive positions of hotel and restaurant business enterprises.But strategic decisions are especially important for increasing the competitive potential of enterprises.After all, its formation and increase are the basis for increasing the competitiveness of the hotel, restaurant and tourism business.However, in the practice of competitiveness management, business entities in the hotel, restaurant and tourism business are rarely limited to one or another of the above strategies.As a rule, several of them are used simultaneously in combination, depending on their competitive position, reproduction cycle, resource provision, specialisation, and location (Maria et al., 2023).Thus, according to the chairman of the board of VisitUkraine.
Today, certain trends are already noticeable in the restoration of tourism in Ukraine (2023): people most often need to rest in sanatoriums, where they can restore their nervous system as far away from explosions and air raids as possible; demand for tours for one person or family has increased and group tours have fallen; priority requirements for hotels and other accommodation facilities are availability of light, heat, water, communication and shelter.Given these and other trends, the market will continue to focus on domestic consumers.Travel agencies will offer holidays in rural areas in cooperation with rural green tourism enterprises; various bus tours abroad.The problem is attracting solvent customers (Hotel business in Ukraine..., 2023).
It can be solved by relying on marketing tools based on big data analytics.Some of them, for example, are offered by Kyivstar (Tourism during the war..., 2023).1.The Client Portrait tool helps to clearly understand the travel agency's customer base according to selected criteria -age, gender, location, interests, income, profession, etc.This allows to develop and adapt the offer to a specific target audience, thereby increasing the number of consumers.2. Geo-analytics.With this tool, hotel, restaurant and tourism businesses can develop special offers for potential visitors, taking into account geographical features; increase their advertising in those regions where customers come from the least; open their outlets, branches, representative offices where demand and customer flow are highest.3. The third tool is targeted mailings.They allow to send personalised offers to individual customers or groups of customers, which can be distributed according to more than 100 criteria, such as geolocation, age, gender, children, pets, interests, travel, lifestyle, etc.The use of these marketing tools can be seen as new competitive opportunities for hotel, restaurant and tourism companies that will allow them to operate despite the difficulties of wartime.

CONCLUSIONS
Hotel, restaurant and tourism businesses were widespread and dynamically developed in Ukraine in the pre-war period.However, as a result of the full-scale invasion, they suffered perhaps the greatest losses and destruction.This applies to property complexes, personnel, and tourist flows.Therefore, the article attempts to conduct a comprehensive study of both hotel and restaurant and tourism enterprises.They are significantly dependent on each other in the process of forming efficiency and competitiveness, have common threats, but certain differences in location, priorities of consumer demand, and marketing strategies.The identified pattern should be taken into account in managing the efficiency and competitiveness of hotel, restaurant and tourism enterprises during the war, especially in terms of security measures.
The competitiveness of hotel, restaurant and tourism enterprises is influenced by external and internal, direct and indirect factors.These include integration processes; quality of products and services; innovation and digitalisation and online technologies; staff qualifications and traditional hospitality.Operational and marketing activities and the chosen management strategies largely determine the competitive advantages, competitive potential and competitiveness of business entities in this dynamic and profitable sector of the economy, and therefore must be comprehensively implemented during the war.
In prospective studies, in the implementation of management decisions proposed in the study, it is necessary to take into account the hierarchical levels of formation of efficiency and competitiveness -enterprises, products and services, industry and market; stages of development, reproduction cycles.Depending on the competitive position of the hotel, restaurant and tourism business enterprises, a strategy and tactics for managing efficiency and competitiveness should be developed.Despite the specificity of their practice, taking into account the specifics and identified differences in activities, the following remain common to all enterprises: support for integration processes; focus on products and services, their properties and qualities; improvement of personnel and management; introduction of digitalisation and innovative technologies and marketing measures.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Economic performance of Ukrainian tourism market operators in 2021 Source: compiled by the authors based on Ukrainian Association of Travel Agencies (2021)