Diversification of tourism activities in the face of uncertainty in the external environment associated with the COVID-19 epidemic

• Gomilevskaya G.A.

  G. A. Gomilevskaya .Vladivostok State University of Economics and Service. Vladivostok. Russia

• D. V. Solomonyuk

  D. V. Solomonyuk Vladivostok State University of Economics and Service. Vladivostok. Russia

The article analyzes the diversification of tourism activities in the face of uncertainty in the external environment associated with the COVID-19 epidemic. Diversification is necessary to minimize and avoid significant risks in tourism activities that are directly related to restrictions
due to the onset of coronavirus infection. The purpose of this scientific work is to determine a strategy for diversifying the activities of tour operators of international tourism in the face of uncertainty in the external environment, namely in connection with the COVID-19 epidemic.
The methodological basis of the work is the assessment of diversification and its impact on tour operators during a period of uncertainty in the external environment, the work uses methods of actualization, system analysis, classification, statistical analysis and modeling. The
work pays significant attention to the concept of "diversification", provides its main types and classification of tourist operators by field of activity. Emphasis is placed on reducing the dynamics of inbound and outbound tourism in the Russian Federation in the period 2019–2020,
and on the basis of statistical data, it is concluded that Russian citizens are interested in domestic tourism even during the COVID-19 pandemic. The main methods of diversification that help tour operators and travel companies to maintain competitiveness and develop in the
market of travel services are given. The practical significance lies in defining a diversification strategy during a period of uncertainty in the external environment, during a pandemic, thus identifying the features of diversification of Russian and foreign tour operators, as well as
ways to diversify the tourist product in world practice during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: diversification, COVID-19, tour operator, travel agency, tourism market, crisis
recovery.