Abstract:

Tourism in Ukraine has been legally proclaimed a priority area for the development of national culture and economy. Child and youth tourism focused on a socially important category of the population, namely, the younger generation, occupies a special place in tourism activities. First of all, it is intended to educate the younger generation through tourism and local studies, to form an all-round personality. The development of the system of youth tourism can become an important tool for spiritual revival, national and patriotic education, the formation of ecological thinking, and the mentality of the Ukrainian society as a whole. The medical and biological function of child and youth tourism is very important. Its aim is to improve the health of young people. In recent years, there has been an increased interest to the history of the native land in all spheres of public life. Child and youth tourism is supported by the state. The relevance of the study of child and youth tourism in Ukraine and its oblasts is conditioned by the modern complicated epidemiological, economic and geopolitical situation in the state.

This work aims to determine the characteristics and current state of the development of child and youth tourism in Ukraine (in general and in particular in the Kharkiv oblast). The tasks based on the aim of the work are the following: to analyse scientific sources, to study the experience of Ukraine as a whole, to reveal the social essence of child and youth tourism, to analyse the current state of the development of child and youth tourism in Ukraine and the Kharkiv oblast, to identify problems and substantiate ways of improving child and youth tourism activities. As a result of the research, the authors have reviewed the general features and peculiarities of the content of child and youth tourism. The features of the modern development of youth tourism in Ukraine and the Kharkiv oblast are analysed. The main problems of the development of child and youth tourism are determined and the ways of their solution are proposed.