THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CULTURAL DIMENSIONS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNATIONAL TOURISM

Abstract

The paper examines how the country's cultural dimensions impact the development of international tourism and the increase in international tourism arrivals. The international market of tourist services is recovering after the period of the COVID-19 pandemic when tourist flows were significantly reduced. Of course, the main exporters of tourist services have not succeeded in reaching the pre-pandemic indicators of international tourism yet, but the government of each country is making maximum efforts to restore the tourism industry. Overall, France recorded the highest number of inbound travelers worldwide in 2021. However, the number of international tourists arriving in this country will remain significantly lower than before the pandemic. France is followed by Mexico, Spain, and Turkey in the ranking of the most visited countries in 2021. Tourism is an international activity, as it involves the simultaneous interaction of countries, each of which has its own national culture. National culture determines the general development of a society and acts as a special system of norms and values that distinguishes one society from another, giving it its identity. Furthermore, the identity of the people creates a unique tourist resource that must be effectively promoted and rationally used. The paper defines the functions of culture and presents a detailed description of the classification of world cultures according to G. Hofstede. The paper analyzes the indicators characterizing the culture of each of the four countries with the most international tourist arrivals in 2021 (France, Mexico, Spain, and Turkey). We used Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory to analyze the tourism data. Today Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory is considered one of the most promising, compared to other studies, since the indicators selected by the author are the most universal, and the method has a wider theoretical and empirical base than its alternative variants. Since the countries represent different regions of the world, we will determine whether the common and different parameters of the country's culture affect its tourist attractiveness and the development of the tourism industry. We were able to conclude that the differences in the cultural dimensions have a greater impact on the successful cooperation of tour operators, employees of the tourism business, or the service sector, in the avoidance of misunderstandings in cross-cultural communication.