The Prospects of Sustainable Development of Destroyed Tourism Areas Using Virtual Technologies

Abstract

The development of restorative tourism in post-war countries is crucial to economic recovery, cultural preservation, and social stabilization. While various nations have adopted different reconstruction strategies following conflicts, Ukraine’s situation requires an innovative and large-scale approach due to the extensive damage inflicted on infrastructure, cultural heritage, and tourism assets. This study explores the role of virtual and augmented reality technologies in restoring tourism potential, particularly in preserving destroyed cultural heritage through digitalization. Virtual tourism is increasingly relevant to maintaining cultural identity, attracting investment, and fostering international engagement. This study examines the evolution of digital tourism solutions, consumer behaviour shifts towards online leisure, and the integration of geoinformation systems for post-crisis planning. The findings emphasize that Ukraine’s tourism sector must adapt to digital trends while developing physical infrastructure, ensuring a comprehensive, resilient, and future-oriented restoration strategy. This study provides recommendations for leveraging innovation in post-crisis tourism development. It explains how the change in the paradigm of consumption of recreation and leisure services in the modern world impels the restoration of the destroyed tourism infrastructure. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of strategic migration policies to rebuild the labour market, which is essential for sustainable recovery.

1. Introduction

Except for specific short periods, the XX–XXI centuries were marked by many local and international conflicts. Each country has recovered from the ruins in its own way, and it is tough to provide any unique recommendations, especially now that the conflict on the territory of Ukraine is the first modern technological battle of the 21st century and has no analogues either in terms of scale or the list of technologies used. It is evident that under such conditions, the material cultural heritage is also significantly damaged, with the virtualization of objects often being the only effective preservation method, as it ensures the retention of memories and information. Like any other product on the market, virtual travel services are required to demonstrate a clear consumer focus and generate profit. The role of virtual tourism, incorporating augmented reality, remains to be delineated. While innovation is undoubtedly a catalyst for competitiveness, tourism remains predominantly physical in nature, a domain that modern technologies have yet to replicate fully. Nevertheless, patterns of behaviour and leisure time of the world’s population, which has access to the Internet and individualised technical devices, are changing, and the need for a component of “virtual leisure time” is growing. Therefore, this article aims not only to describe the modern approaches used in creating a virtual tourist space but also to explain that the emergence of such services is an inevitable consequence of the digitisation of society and the paradigm shift in everyday life. This study’s main goal is to assess the potential of virtual technologies for supporting the sustainable restoration of destroyed tourism infrastructure in post-crisis regions, using Ukraine as a case study.

Based on the stated goal of this study, our research objectives were developed as follows:

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To analyse the role of virtual tourism in the context of sustainable development;

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To describe the technologies of digital tools for creating virtual tourism services and virtual tourist experiences;

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To study the intensity of content consumption on the Internet and explain how changes in the way of spending free time (offline vs. online) will affect the preferences of potential consumers of the tourism product;

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To describe virtual and augmented reality tourism projects to preserve and restore the destroyed cultural heritage using ones implemented in Ukraine as a case example.

We aimed at three main directions in our research when analysing the experience of other countries in overcoming the consequences of natural and technogenic calamities and the restoration or creation of new recreational areas.

The first research direction is the restoration of territories. Both in the scientific literature and in strategic documents at different levels of management, the problem of rebuilding settlements, restoring industrial production, and revitalizing the natural environment is primarily emphasized. Examples of the most interesting, in our opinion, publications, the authors of which try to combine the tasks of revitalization in several areas, include the following: A. Hoeffler develops a comprehensive approach to the complex reconstruction of life support infrastructure in African countries and investigates the issue of investments in various sectors of national economies [1]; P. Marsh et al. [2]—the tasks of ecological restoration in ties with the health of local population; T.S. Pacheco Toma et al. [3]—developing the algorithm of restoration and conservation in highly threatened areas; S. Prober et al. [4]—ecological renovation under changing climate challenges aimed at building adaptive capacity programs; L.N. Svejkar et al. [5]—ecosystem restoration influenced by large-scale disturbances; B. Fu et al. [6]—the holistic approach of the complex of state ecological restoration strategies implemented in China; T. Lv et al. [7]—the complex approach to a large-scale restoration strategies based on spatial-based zoning; O. Stryzhak et al. [8]—the concept and issues of industrial property management; P. Popova et al. [9]—the value of digitisation on sustainable tourism development; and V. Yermachenko et al. [10]—the strategies of business tourism development concerning the analysis of global trends.

The second research direction is the contemporary trend towards ethical and/or ecological business and social responsibility. In this study, we will not delve into the issues of transition from the era of globalisation to regionalisation and partial closure of macro markets (on a geographical or collaborative basis), which is now observed as a result of several major military conflicts in different world regions over the past 15–20 years. But it should be noted that the principles and ideas of “globality”, the universality of the international business environment, approaches to business organisation, and communication technology continue to operate. Their loss threatens not just the loss of part of the profit; the rejection of ethical narratives developed by the Club of Rome and its successors will lead not so much to stagnation of the global economy as to a permanent retrogression of civilisational development, which humanity managed to achieve by the beginning of the XXI^st century. Even with the narrowing of the geographical framework of trade operations (physical or digital products), the ideas of ethical business, green economy, and sustainable development should be preserved. The digital environment is even more susceptible to negative influences from unfair competition and two-way manipulation (consumers also indirectly impact demand without even realizing it). Therefore, the ethical marketing issues that A. Lučić [11] addresses are important. Sustainable marketing orientation involves building such relationships with the stakeholders (consumers, the most important group) that will enable all parties to think and act ethically, implementing sustainability into the corporate culture and customers’ behaviour. The study in [12] shows a negative dissemination example of unethical corporate behaviour, revealing the dark side of open digital communication sources. To avoid this, the ideas of N. Nenkov et al. [13] in information management of human resources can be considered. F. Diez-Martin et al. [14] name marketing in digital environments, such as on the Internet, to be the biggest challenge for marketologists. They classified nine semantic clusters for marketing and sustainability research, which outline the bulk trends of today’s attention, including travel behaviour (cluster 7), and measured the correlation between the clusters.

The third research direction explores the issues of digitisation in different spheres of business activities, especially marketing and learning consumers’ behaviour. The role of digitisation in the business culture is discussed in the work in [15], where the competitive advantages and disadvantages of digitisation on the company’s performance are discussed, and in [16], where the authors stress that main efforts are being made towards customer value creation, ignoring the organisation completely. A. Siano et al. stand out in this trend, suggesting the method of a corporate website analysis for assessing its compatibility with sustainable communication principles [17] and performing the complete analysis of circular economy capabilities within a separate industry [18]. R. Gordon, M. Carrigan, and G. Hastings [19] evaluate sustainable marketing based on green, social, and critical marketing. They say that despite plenty of sources and initiatives available, consumers still lack knowledge and understanding of the practical implementation of sustainability into their lives. Thus, restorative digital tourism can fulfil an educational role. K. Peattie [20] followed the “green marketing” concept development path, describing its three consequent stages: ecological, environmental, and sustainable marketing. To understand the scientific scope of interrelations between digitization and the circular economy, Q. Liu et al. [21] conducted a semantic analysis of various publications using a set of keywords, outlining 13 digital critical functions to support the principles of the circular economy. I. Guandalini [22] also used the semantic method to find the interconnections between digital transformation and sustainability. The review by R. Saura, P. Palos-Sanchez, and B. Rodríguez Herráez [23] lists elements of digital marketing complementing sustainable growth, namely digital business models, digital marketing techniques, knowledge-based analysis techniques, social media analytics, digital behaviour and neuromarketing, and CRM systems. The relationship between economic growth, green environment, and circular economy was tested in the work in [24] based on selected variables, including energy consumption and waste management.

2. Materials and Methods

Planning is a time-consuming process; in the case of a depressed economic area, a few extra months are not crucial. However, post-war regions demand real-time actions immediately. Almost all world regions have accumulated cases of post-crisis development, so while in a current conflict, there is a period to delve into those experiences and create a “databank” that is potentially the most relevant in the near future. The same applies to restoration contracts: Ukraine already has agreements with various countries on specific infrastructure projects. First, we need to accept that various-scaled conflicts have been an inherent part of the last one hundred years. It is an illusion that the post-WWII civilisation has been developing smoothly, with the untypical sporadic drops of unexpected hostilities. When applied to the historical method, elements of visual representation can vividly depict the scale and significance of international conflicts before continuing to analyse individual facts and statistics.

Second, as the prospective Ukrainian future tourism industry will heavily rely on digital tourism and augmented reality technologies, it is necessary to estimate the potential markets for consumers and collaborators and establish monitoring techniques to accompany local businesses and administrations with relevant data. Understanding the range of available sources for disseminating intended narratives and creating a positively minded audience for promoting the Ukrainian tourism product (at the initial stage, it is not essential whether digital or physical) should be part of the industry recovery strategy. A preliminary descriptive analysis of potential markets by country was conducted based on Internet user statistics regarding time spent online and devices used.

Third, the strategic program development demands a supporting legislative framework in urgent fields. The synthesis method was applied to indicate the terms and scope to be covered by the laws on innovation and digital services regulation. Despite the rapid introduction of digital services in state administration and business environment in recent years, the legislative framework needs to reconsider further implementing digital tourism services.

Fourth, gap-based planning was used to outline the strategic imperatives for restoring the destroyed areas that presumed the pre-definition of a local territory status and its level of safety for visitors’ physical presence.

The general approach to calculating the rating is described in this article, with the list of indicators able to be supplemented and individualised for specific markets, as well as depending on the volume of economic transactions Ukraine had with a given country before the war. Specifically, indicators such as digital content engagement rates, user feedback on VR experiences, international online traffic to restored heritage platforms, and simulation-based scenarios to compare digital vs. traditional approaches could be added. Where feasible, case-based benchmarking from other post-crisis regions to contrast outcomes is also proposed. It is always easier to enter an already familiar market, but in the case of digital (intangible) services, at least the lion’s share of logistics costs can be deducted. The skeleton (framework) structure of the index is shown in Figure 1.

Because the present method is also intended for application to SMEs, which may not have the means to purchase specialised data sets, open sources such as the World Bank databases were utilised (by analogy, the rating can be supplemented with indicators from other open sources); moreover, incorporating weighting coefficients and expert assessments, analogous to the World Economic Forum’s model rankings, is also a viable option. However, it is crucial to bear in mind the practical linkage of the rating and the fulfilment of a specific analytical task, as opposed to the replication of a renowned ranking, such as Doing Business.

The annual averages were calculated from 2009 (to capture a 15-year period ideally) to 2023 (or the latest year with data available). It should be noted that the time intervals can be shortened if the priority is not on stability and long-term trends imprinted in the minds of two generations (which forms an internal, often unconscious, consumption pattern) but on the current state of the market. After calculating the annual averages, they were normalised on a scale ranging from 1 to 10, incorporating the allocation of stimulant and destimulant indicators. Subsequently, weighted average indices were calculated for the selected countries (Pillar 1 received 50%, or 0.5; Pillar 2 received 20%, or 0.20; and Pillar 3 received 30%, or 0.3). The final rating was then used to divide the countries into five categories, depending on their final value: (1) the highest priority for the promotion of the national digital tourism product; (2) high priority; (3) medium priority; (4) low priority; and 5) unpromising market. The boundaries of these categories were defined according to the even step of the scale.

Step = (rank_max − rank_min)/n

n—number of groups (5 in our case)

The output data vectors permit the representation of ultra-high and ultra-low values, demonstrating the country’s genuine success in a specific domain of activity and the efficacy of state regulation of social relations.

The extensive range of variation is rectified through nonlinear normalisation.

For stimulants:

$$z_i={\displaystyle \frac{1}{{\mathrm{e}}^{-\mathsf{\alpha }\times \left(x_i-\frac{x_{min}-x_{max}}{2}\right)}+1}}\times \left(b-a\right)+1$$

For destimulants:

$$z_i=b-{\displaystyle \frac{1}{{\mathrm{e}}^{-\mathsf{\alpha }\times \left(x_i-\frac{x_{min}-x_{max}}{2}\right)}+1}}\times \left(b-a\right)$$

x_i—the initial value of the indicator to be normalised;

z_i—the normalised value of the indicator;

a, b—respectively, the upper and lower scale limits (in our case, 1 and 10);

x_min—minimum value of the indicator;

x_max—maximum value of the indicator;

α = 0.05 (steepness parameter).

If the initial data in a single vector (for one indicator) are characterised by a limited range of variation, it is recommended to employ a linear normalisation function, for instance:

For stimulants:

$$z_i=\left(b-a\right){\displaystyle \frac{x_i-x_{min}}{x_{max}-x_{min}}}+a$$

For destimulants:

$$z_i=\left(a-b\right){\displaystyle \frac{x_i-x_{min}}{x_{max}-x_{min}}}+b$$

Due to the absence of data for several indicators across several countries during the specified period (2009–2023), an approach was adopted to ensure an unbiased ranking calculation. When data were missing, the missing values were replaced by either x_min > 0 or x_min − x_mean (where x_min < 0) for stimulant indicators. For destimulators, the missing values were replaced by x_max + x_mean.

The sample also excluded countries that currently demonstrate maximum open support for the military aggression of the Russian Federation. Conversely, countries grappling with ongoing or recently concluded conflicts within their territories were retained in the sample, as experts from Ukraine can offer insights into their experiences in reconstructing devastated regions. The primary focus will be on bilateral cooperation, particularly using digital technologies for damage assessment and creating initial maps depicting the location of destroyed objects and hazardous areas. After this, digital replicas of valuable assets will be created. This results in a final sample of 211 national economies. It should be noted that all data for the rating are normalised, ensuring that the size of a country’s territory and the scale of its economy are not factors. However, if some geographical regions are initially prioritised, the sample may be artificially reduced before calculations are made. The minimum value that the national economy received according to the proposed rating was 1.6393 and the maximum was 7.1537. Accordingly, the scale step is as follows:

Step = (7.1537 − 1.6393)/5 = 1.1029

Table 1. Distribution of national economies by priority.

Category	Score	National Economies
1 Highest priority	6.0508–7.1537	(9) Ireland; Malta; Papua New Guinea; Netherlands; Israel; Switzerland; Singapore; Philippines; and Sweden.
2 High priority	4.9479–<6.0508	(56) United States; Belgium; Algeria; Korea, Rep.; Finland; Malaysia; Luxembourg; Canada; Costa Rica; Japan; Brazil; United Kingdom; Liberia; France; Mauritania; Norway; Kazakhstan; Hong Kong SAR, China; Suriname; Gabon; Czechia; Iceland; Germany; Argentina; Timor-Leste; Cyprus; China; North America; Austria; Australia; Denmark; Congo, Rep.; Estonia; North Macedonia; Slovak Republic; Spain; Montenegro; India; Thailand; Ghana; Poland; Slovenia; Maldives; Italy; Romania; Qatar; Guinea; Serbia; Angola; Honduras; Guyana; Botswana; Djibouti; Mauritius; Colombia; and Indonesia.
3 Moderate priority	3.8450–<4.9479	(107) Eswatini; Kuwait; Senegal; Uruguay; Namibia; Chile; Latvia; Mali; Bangladesh; Nicaragua; Paraguay; Mexico; Iraq; Tunisia; Burkina Faso; St. Lucia; Solomon Islands; Sao Tome and Principe; Dominican Republic; Portugal; Mongolia; Jordan; Guatemala; Brunei Darussalam; Bulgaria; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Lebanon; Kenya; Kyrgyz Republic; Barbados; Croatia; Morocco; Jamaica; Turkey; Peru; Cote d’Ivoire; New Caledonia; Bolivia; South Africa; Tajikistan; Samoa; Myanmar; Burundi; Niger; West Bank and Gaza; New Zealand; Seychelles; El Salvador; United Arab Emirates; Congo, Dem. Rep.; Egypt, Arab Rep.; Sierra Leone; Lithuania; Malawi; Saudi Arabia; French Polynesia; Ecuador; Cameroon; Macao SAR, China; Cabo Verde; Pakistan; Moldova; Guinea-Bissau; Azerbaijan; Uganda; Fiji; Uzbekistan; Benin; Togo; Afghanistan; Bahamas, The; Oman; Rwanda; Comoros; Yemen, Rep.; Viet Nam; Panama; Mozambique; Haiti; Cayman Islands; Ethiopia; Madagascar; Sri Lanka; Nepal; Greece; Sudan; Tonga; Trinidad and Tobago; Albania; Bahrain; Belize; Vanuatu; Lao PDR; Georgia; Armenia; South Sudan; Kiribati; Kosovo; Nauru; Lesotho; Zimbabwe; Bhutan; Bermuda; St. Vincent and the Grenadines; Grenada; Gambia, The; and Tanzania.
4 Low priority	2.7422–<3.8450	(30) Venezuela, RB; Marshall Islands; Zambia; Somalia; Libya; St. Kitts and Nevis; San Marino; Cambodia; Dominica; Virgin Islands (U.S.); Turkmenistan; Chad; Curacao; Micronesia, Fed. Sts.; Tuvalu; Guam; Syrian Arab Republic; Aruba; Antigua and Barbuda; Sint Maarten (Dutch part); Puerto Rico; Channel Islands; Central African Republic; Cuba; Faroe Islands; Andorra; Palau; Greenland; Equatorial Guinea; and Eritrea.
5 Non- perspective markets	1.1029–<2.7422	(9) Turks and Caicos Islands; Gibraltar; Isle of Man; British Virgin Islands; St. Martin (French part); Monaco; Liechtenstein; American Samoa; and Northern Mariana Islands.

illustrates the distribution of countries according to categories of priority for Ukrainian companies seeking to enter local markets that offer digital tourism products.

Following the automatic categorisation stage, selecting priority markets can be further refined by examining more detailed criteria. Furthermore, correlation and regression analyses can be utilised to assess the existence of dependencies between the initial indicators (Figure 2).

Figure 2 demonstrates a discernible correlation between exports and imports of communication services (an evident association for the majority of countries, given that the more open the market, the greater the volume of exchange transactions); between mortality and the number of individuals employed in the service sector; between external debt and GDP growth rates and GDP per capita; between poverty and mortality (an indisputable trend); and between poverty and employment in the service sector and exports of communication and computer services. The latter assumption is rather unexpected at first glance; therefore, the probable relationship should be evaluated graphically. Excluding the extreme values of the indicators (i.e., countries that most likely did not provide data and therefore received a minimum score of 1.0 as a result of substituting values at the stage of calculating the ranking), it is possible to observe either a linear or exponential relationship, although the scatter plot is significant (but the correlation coefficient is only 0.378). After the elimination of redundant data, the following regression equation was obtained (Figure 3):

y = 1.5008 × exp(0.1687 × x)

where

y is employment in services (% of total employment) (modelled ILO estimate);

x is the poverty headcount ratio at the societal poverty line (% of the population).

The model includes normalised values of indicators that consider the transposition of the poverty indicator scale (a destimulant). The result is a graph showing an inverse relationship, i.e., the lower the poverty level in a given country, the higher the share of employment in the service sector. This phenomenon can be attributed to the tendency of redistribution within the labour market favouring the tertiary sector, which typically increases with GDP growth and the subsequent rise in household incomes. In contrast, in economically disadvantaged countries, the primary and secondary sectors predominate, except in instances where the tourism industry employs a significant number of unskilled labourers. A comparable trend is anticipated for the share of communications, computers, and related product exports (% of service exports, BoP).

3. Results

To ascertain potential markets for digital tourism products, it is necessary to combine the following three main components:

(1)

The availability of sufficient telecommunications infrastructure in the country and the readiness of its inhabitants to consume digital services. The utilisation of Internet technologies and virtual reality should already be a part of the daily lives of the majority of residents, and spending leisure time in the online environment should not be perceived as something strange and inaccessible. However, forming a new market requires significant resources and time, which Ukraine currently lacks. The efficacy of traditional centralised dissemination of another country’s culture through diplomatic channels was demonstrated in 2022–2024. However, this approach did not pursue private commercial objectives but rather aimed to achieve a different outcome, namely to ensure that residents of countries that provided military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine received sufficient diverse information about the recipient and came to understand the expediency of withdrawing funds from state budgets in favour of another state. These markets can be regarded as a priority when promoting post-war tourism products. However, it is not advisable to focus solely on them, as residents of these countries may experience information fatigue from the constant mention of events related to Ukraine. It is necessary to shift the emphasis in rhetoric from war and destruction to development and technology.

(2)

Simultaneously develop B2C, B2B, and, if possible, C2C segments. Different levels of cooperation should be followed when selecting key stakeholders for a particular digital product and the virtual reality field. For instance, certain markets in specific countries are likely to demonstrate optimal productivity within the B2C segment of individual end users—encompassing gamers, proponents of contemporary digital art, and consumer innovators seeking to procure and experience a diverse array of augmented reality devices. Additionally, a relatively modest demographic of individuals, predominantly schoolchildren and students, tends to adopt the most recent and unconventional trends. This consumer segment is characterised by heterogeneity, leading to a fragmented market with a concomitant lack of reliability. Digital products exhibit high elasticity, suggesting that the most opportune markets for these consumers are those with high per capita income and digital literacy. It is imperative to comprehend the nature of the virtual reality services they are willing to purchase and to tailor the product to the needs of local online communities. However, even in countries where these criteria are met, consumers are not guaranteed to be interested in the Ukrainian virtual tourism product. For example, they may wish to peruse virtual tours, visit virtual museums, view their exhibits, and experience a virtual universe that reflects their cultural and ethnic identity. In such cases, the focus will be on the B2B sector, leveraging the substantial expertise of Ukrainian developers in creating digital replicas of destroyed objects (in locations designated as relatively calm zones) and drawing upon the extensive experience of the Ukrainian IT sector [25,26,27]. For specialists in international projects and outsourcing, it is possible to offer services in developing localised digital products and training local IT specialists in working with large-scale panoramic surveys using drones, creating 3D models, and carrying out fieldwork. Finally, the C2C segment entails the augmentation of the presence of Ukrainian developers and designers on various marketplaces such as Etsy and analogous ones, the popularisation of digital culture and digital products in the “white zone” of the economy, consultations for representatives of the art sphere in the sphere of small business development, the protection of intellectual property rights, and the creation of individual products to order (especially for those for whom such creativity is more of a hobby than a main way of earning a living). It is acknowledged that the sales volumes of this category may not be sufficient to generate substantial tax revenues, particularly as many representatives of creative industries do not advertise their activities as commercial due to their uncertainty regarding the competitiveness of their creative products. Marketplaces are utilized as a testing ground for collecting opinions from interested potential consumers rather than as a permanent source of income. Furthermore, professional and creative marketplaces fulfil a significant social function by gradually familiarising consumers from different countries with authentic national products and promoting countries through unofficial channels, fostering greater trust in the other party. The psychological technique of “I heard it from someone like myself” is effective, an effect that cannot be achieved through intrusive, externally suppressive advertising.

(3)

Strategic vision and strategic support of innovative digital projects for the restoration of destroyed cultural and natural heritage by the state. In the contemporary era, many projects are being implemented on a volunteer basis or with the assistance of sponsors. However, even such support should be grounded in a shared vision and a comprehensive understanding of the necessity to invest efforts and funds in projects within a specific country without the prospect of compensation, thereby diverting resources from the country’s own commercial sector. Programs for the digitization of destroyed objects must be endorsed as state or, at the very least, regional strategies. This will ensure that partners of Ukrainian volunteers have the assurance that the outcome will receive at least informational support. Moreover, this approach will facilitate the submission of formal grant applications to European and international funds. To assess the readiness of consumers from different countries to adopt a new digital product, criterion 1 will be employed, with countries analysed from the perspective of their digital infrastructure readiness. To this end, a conditional rating of the attractiveness of national markets for digital recreational products has been developed based on average data from the last 10–15 years. It is imperative to acknowledge that the traditions and conditions surrounding the consumption of virtual products and “online life” in general should ideally be shaped by at least two generations, thereby fostering a synergistic effect from the mutual interest of children and parents in virtual reality. While each generation selects its own digital niche, it is crucial for parents to recognise the virtual world as something that is not inscrutable, costly, or inherently dangerous. Doing so will make them more inclined to purchase new products that align with their interests, which may have been considered semi-commercialised ideas in the past. Furthermore, they will be more open to exploring popular products among the younger generation to ensure they are not behind the times.

There may be a false impression that the largest wars ended in the first half of the 20th century, with the capitulation of the fascist regime, and then came peaceful times, interrupted from time to time by minor local conflicts. However, this is far from the case. The “insidiousness” of modern conflicts (we will refer to the conflicts that started and/or continued after 1950) is that they are often not large-scale and cover only certain regions of one country, or clashes take place on the borders of two or three states but do not end finally with the signing of a peace agreement or any other formal action, and continue the smouldering confrontation between the parties, exploding with new force after a few years or decades. According to the estimations of the Museums of Imperial Wars [28], more than 187 million people died in conflicts of several types and scales during 1901–2023. If we look at the war timeline (as an example, only the main list of wars of the XX–XXI centuries was taken), only 23 years out of the last 125 years were not marked by conflicts; that is, only 18.4% of the overall time (consisting of two periods: 1903–1913 and 1924–1935). This can be argued since the list of conflicts on this resource did not include events related to the years of famine in Ukraine.

The authors of the resource in [28] note that their goal was to collect prior data on British citizens who suffered in conflicts around the world, so not all events are covered. Moreover, genocide, by definition, does not fall into the category of armed conflicts. Thus, for each nation and state, it is necessary to scrutinise and supplement such lists, and the number of victims will be higher than the average shown by world statistics. Figure 4 demonstrates the most straightforward war timeline scheme of the XX–XXI centuries. Still, for detailed analysis, it is better to use special applications, for example, https://time.graphics (accessed on 10 January 2025), and to evaluate a separate geographic macro-region, combining geoinformation applications with the function of building multilayer maps, where each layer can represent a selected time period. The information collected in preparing these resources can be used as a base for virtual or physical tourist routes implemented in a visualized historical–geographical space.

The draft shows that the most significant conflicts were concentrated in 1948–1960. Not all countries were equally quick to restore their national economy and demographics, including the available labour force, for post-war reconstruction. If we compare the economic indicators of Sri Lanka, Vietnam, South Korea, North Korea, and Japan (all these countries are in the same geographical region, were severely affected by military actions in the 20th century, and at the time of the end of the conflict had a similar range of problems and demographic characteristics), today they are very different. The tourist profiles of the mentioned countries are also different; moreover, we know that the tourism industry reflects the population’s income level and the openness of borders, which, respectively, indicate the potential for further economic and social development. Therefore, it can be assumed that it was not so much the degree of destruction of territories that harmed the future development of the country but also the chosen geopolitical vector and recovery strategies. The longer the country took part in hostilities, the more its territories were destroyed, and the socio-demographic composition of the population changed. Prolonged conflicts provoke high rates of emigration, with the latest examples being the “migration crisis” to the EU after the war in Syria and several millions of immigrants from Ukraine, not least thanks to state programs supporting refugees in European countries. Indirectly (formal indicators of tourism statistics are not applicable, but the intensification and growth of traveller flows are recorded everywhere), the shocking losses from the escalation of the conflict led to an increase in transport costs and accommodation services, and at the same time revitalized the labour markets of various regions.

We completely agree that these areas are of primary importance, but we must also remember the strategy of restoring the socio-demographic component of the affected administrative–territorial units. For example, if the labour-efficient population emigrated en masse from the unsafe zone and does not plan to return after the end of the conflict, then before making investments in this territory, the potential of the labour market sufficient for the development of the allocated resources must first be restored. In addition, the quantity and quality of the labour force are not the same, and even with an increase in volume, it is impossible to replace highly qualified specialists with untrained workers who are unable to perform certain work tasks without several years of training. As H. Haas [29] notes, the first to emigrate from the country are people who have already risen above the poverty line (because visa documents, employment permits, etc., require funds, and even in the case of illegal migration, the poorest population strata do not possess enough funds to pay the smugglers). If migration is planned, then future migrants begin to save money for life in another country in advance; accordingly, they work harder and more productively in their country, increasing their qualifications. People who are unsure of their education and qualifications do not go abroad (at least not for a long time and they do not stay abroad and apply for citizenship) because they understand that the requirements for non-local workers in the labour market are even higher. Therefore, they should be at a level higher than local specialists to occupy more or less worthy positions. Having put so much effort into arranging life in a new country, qualified specialists are unlikely to return to their old place of residence, even if the living conditions there have improved; so, what can we say about returning to a location that needs to be rebuilt from ruins? Ukrainian experts began to talk about this problem a few months after the war had started, assessing the scale of emigration. Many single-parent families with children left (according to the Ukrainian martial law, conscripted men are not permitted to go abroad; there are exceptions, but they are insignificant and do not affect the overall scale of migration). The younger generation in any country, especially “aging nations”, is considered a guarantee of the recovery of the labour market in the future). It can be assumed that the states that massively accepted emigrants from Ukraine will try to retain the most productive segments of the population for them, i.e., children and teenagers, creating favourable conditions for their education and further employment. The government of Ukraine will need to develop additional programs for the return of young people while there is hope for motivation to restore the family. On the other hand, a young specialist who has spent several years abroad will be a valuable resource for the national economy, and the attraction of such specialists after several years and the bilateral exchange of students studying and working in priority industries can become the basis of an extended state program. Therefore, we recommend developing strategies for restoring territories affected by hostilities or natural or technological disasters, with simultaneous planning for restoring the natural environment, business infrastructure (production facilities and consumer market), and the socio-demographic component.

A modern digital environment for the creation and distribution of a tourist product. The digital space, where modern business operations and elements of social interaction occur, is today equated to a separate world. This complete system functions according to the characteristics inherent in an independent self-sufficient environment. The “Meta[uni]verse” is a newly introduced term.

Although the definition of the metauniverse is constantly changing, it can be described as a collection of shared digital spaces for real-time interaction and activity. This continuum connects the digital and physical worlds. In the future, the metauniverse will consist of a consumer, corporate, and industrial metauniverse. Early advances in the metauniverse can be accessed using existing devices such as traditional computers, tablets, and mobile phones. However, in the future, the metauniverse may be accessed and supported primarily through augmented reality technologies (XR), including augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR), virtual reality (VR), and/or other as-yet-unknown new technologies.

According to another definition, a metauniverse is a network of interconnected two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) physical and digital worlds and environments of a (semi-)immersive nature that can be “visited” with a sense of presence. The metauniverse can change how we live, work, and interact. As the convergence of augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR) blurs the boundaries between physical and (semi)virtual space, the issue of privacy and security becomes imperative to ensure a safe and inclusive metauniverse for all participants [30].

The field of development of the digital universe infrastructure encompasses the key concept, the so-called “people-centered” approach. This meta-world-oriented philosophy prioritizes human needs and integrates supporting design options, tools, and interactions with respect for the individuals behind the data. It goes beyond technical solutions, covering aspects from architecture and security to privacy, identity, and security. This approach seeks to be fair and inclusive for all, regardless of geographic location, cultural identity, ability, or age.

Technologies of the metaverse:

-

Extended reality (XR): A combination of all realities, including augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR), consisting of technologically mediated environments, accessible through a wide range of hardware and software, including touch interfaces, applications, and infrastructures.

-

Virtual reality (VR): A fully immersive artificial environment created by software. VR is a simulation of three-dimensional images that users experience using special electronic equipment, such as a head-mounted display (HMD). VR can create or enhance characteristics such as presence, embodiment, and activity.

-

Mixed reality (MR): Seamlessly blends the user’s actual environment with digital content, where both environments can coexist and interact.

-

Augmented reality (AR): Overlays digital content on top of the user’s real-world environment, viewed through a device (such as a smartphone) that incorporates real-time input to create an augmented version of reality.

Another essential constituent element of the structure is the “metaverse environment”, also known as an Immersive Virtual Environment (IVE), which is a (semi-)immersive space hosted on a specific platform.

New types of (non-personal), physical, and predictive data can potentially be created, collected, processed, and used, challenging expectations and definitions of privacy. Virtual and augmented worlds allow people to have spatial experiences and overlay digital content on the physical world. This enhances the sense of presence in the digital space, which was previously impossible. Thus, the question of the compatibility of existence in the real (physical) and virtual universes arises. Virtual movement through ecosystems allows money, identities, and objects to be channelled into a meta-environment, raising questions about data management practices, jurisdictional issues, and social norms in virtual space.

Table 2. Advantages and disadvantages of the main components of ensuring privacy and security in the digital environment (compiled based on [30]).

Element	Parameters	Advantages	Disadvantages
A platform’s structure	Centralised	The organizational structure allows principles, governance, policies, risk controls, technology, training, and culture to remain consistent across any experience. It can generate a scale effect. Potentially easier integration and/or interaction with external partners.	A hierarchical organizational structure consolidates management, power, and decision-making ability, reducing the autonomy of individuals. Bureaucratic processes can lead to a lack of transparency, delayed response times, etc.
	Decentralised	An organizational structure allows many individuals to participate in and control organizational activities—potentially including administrative duties and the like. It can increase the autonomy and speed of local decision-making. Participants may have lower barriers to entry on platforms, increasing consumer choice. It can increase transparency and accountability.	Organizational structure can reduce the ability to make unified decisions about principles, governance, policy, risk control, etc. The structure can end in a lack of clearly defined roles, leading to coordination problems and duplication of effort or resources. Members may feel burdened as they make decisions about their data management and security.
The procedure for obtaining permissions (availability parameters)	Free access	A higher degree of control. Individuals/legal entities may be known and trusted.	Barriers to participation include difficulty joining the process. Privacy can be sacrificed to become an authorized member.
	Restricted access	Privacy of individuals/legal entities can be preserved. Potentially lower barriers to entry across platforms/environments. It can foster innovation by allowing stakeholders to experiment and customize experiences.	Potentially lower degree of environmental control. Individuals/legal entities cannot be trusted.
Digital environment management	Public resource (free)	Available to a wide audience. It can increase the transparency of processes. It can provide a more democratic administration of spaces. May have fewer restrictions on participation.	It may have uncontrolled/unexpected content and behaviour.
	Private resource (commercial)	Closed to the public, allowing private activities. Resources, processes, and activity management can be improved.	Transparency of resources, processes, management, etc., may be reduced.
Collection of user data	The growth of “data about me/us”	Personalization. Sensor data can be used to personalize augmented and virtual reality according to a person’s preferences, such as adjusting content based on emotional state or physiological responses. Improved interactivity. Sensors can provide more immersive and interactive experiences, such as controlling virtual objects using hand gestures or facial expressions. Improved security. Sensors can improve safety by detecting and alerting people to potentially harmful physiological changes, such as heart rate or blood pressure changes. They can be used for authentication, ensuring that only authorized individuals can access an augmented or virtual reality application	Privacy concerns. The collection and use of physical body data and biometric data can raise privacy concerns, especially if the data are not securely stored or shared without the individuals’ consent. Inaccuracy. Sensors cannot always capture physiological data accurately, leading to inaccurate results and potentially misleading or harmful impressions. Ethical problems. The use of the data raises ethical concerns, particularly regarding the possibility of discrimination or bias in the analysis and use of the data. Nor can biometrics be replaced by the way a person can change a password or lock. Psychographics. The data can be used to track behaviour and preferences and correlate with other known data to create unwanted profiling, advertising targeting, or denial of service.

contains a comparative analysis of the approaches used to choose the logic of building a digital environment and can serve as a basis for the developers of tourist portals, which are previously planned as dynamic ones and aim to attract as many active users from different countries as possible.

Of course, all parties who create content are interested in increasing user loyalty, maintaining existing subscribers/visitors, and attracting new ones. For this, they will use, among other things, technologies for tracking the actions of consumers on their resources and processing information (including sensitive personal data) received from them. Various services and applications have long used such technologies; even the most common search engines offer results based on stored history and preferences. The user can disable this function and cookies, but usually, network visitors do not think about where information about their devices and request histories is transferred, especially since not everyone has sufficient information literacy.

At the discretion of the developer of the service/portal, the obligation to monitor the preservation of personal data is already in place so that it is not transferred to third parties without the provider’s permission. However, significant differences in the legislation of different countries and the complexity of technical solutions make it impossible to ensure reliable control over data flows, especially if the user does not think much about this issue. On the other hand, the possibilities of collecting and processing depersonalized data form the basis of “big data” processing technology. With the introduction of strict restrictions, the resource owner will receive incorrect (incomplete and fragmented) information, which in turn will reduce the quality of the services offered.

The metauniverse and related technologies can cause exponential growth in “data about me/us”.

Metaverse technologies can perform the following:

Use bodily, biometric, and other sensor data such as gestures, gait, facial expressions, eye movements, voice changes, and real-time vital signs;

Collect and process types of confidential information and personal information (PI), personally identifiable information (PII), and personal health information (PHI);

Collect geospatial data for augmented and virtual reality;

Use such neurotechnologies as neuromodulation, neuroprosthetics, and brain–computer interfaces (BCIs);

Measure physiological responses to generate new data types, such as psychographics [30].

A truly limitless metauniverse may depend on compatible components to implement the effect of scale. However, a 2021 study by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) found that 62 countries have bans or restrictions on cross-border data flows, and these restrictions are accelerating. This makes international cooperation imperative to optimize and protect data flows, which is a critical aspect to consider when developing a borderless metauniverse.

Centralized control of any processes requires appropriate support from legislation and the implementation of purely technical solutions. Before thinking about the problem of combining the requirements defined in the national legislation of different countries, it is worth analysing whether the current normative documents that regulate innovation and information infrastructure in Ukraine meet the needs of the time.

The Law of Ukraine “On Innovative Activity” defines innovative activity as “the activity aimed at the use and commercialization of scientific research and development results, which leads to the release of new competitive goods and services to the market”. That is, the practical implementation of the results of scientific developments on the market is no less important than conducting research. Regarding innovation, many definitions do not contradict each other but complement and expand the basic category; however, more often within the framework of someone’s industry or sphere of activity, there is a need to clarify either the parameters of an innovative product or the ways of its use. However, such diversity arises from the very nature of inventions, with each being unique upon first entering the market; otherwise, they would not be innovations. The problem of establishing compliance with a specific term arises when the enterprise needs to substantiate the existence of innovative activity to fill out reporting forms or receive benefits from the state. An enterprise can be considered innovative if the share of innovation (in monetary terms) in the total volume of its products or services exceeds 70%. Participants in the Ukrainian market should focus on the definitions provided by the legislation. For example, “innovations are newly created (applied) and (or) improved competitive technologies, products or services, as well as organizational and technical solutions of a production, administrative, commercial or other nature, which significantly improve the structure and quality of production and (or) social spheres” (Law “On innovative activity”), which precisely covers all the most common variants of scientific developments that are commercialized. This is the product (goods or service), ways of bringing it to the market, and even management at the enterprise. The methods of management and organization of the administrative process are not classic scientific research and development, but it is worth calculating how much profit a business unit can lose in case of inefficient management. In addition, research institutions lose their scientific potential due to poor management structure, lack of timely information exchange, and incorrect budget redistribution. As a rule, they also go through a certain life cycle—from growth and maturity to decline—which is especially relevant for large organizations, which, in one way or another, have to deal with bureaucracy within their own borders. All large corporations have gone through this inevitable process. In the literature, the example of IBM is often given when the company began to lose its research potential because it reduced the funding of its own laboratories, primarily those that worked on “dreams”, which were projects that were unlikely to be commercialized in the coming years. Nevertheless, basic research can take several years until the product is ready to be brought to the market—not least because of the lack of consumer demand and the general lack of understanding by the average consumer of their need.

However, the above theses are more relevant for industrial scientific research regarding material inventions. Digital innovations, on the other hand, are more flexible, require less hardware (with some exceptions, such as quantum programming), and can be stored and transported at minimal cost. There is currently no definition of digital innovation in Ukrainian legislation, so we will use the categories “digital economy” and “digital products” for further analysis.

Although it is clear from the above definitions that innovation can occur anywhere and anytime, it is usually grouped into three broad categories:

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Breakthroughs or sudden innovations that lead to the emergence of a definitely new technology or process that completely changes one or more markets and/or social activities. Examples are 3D printing, the Internet, advanced genetic engineering, and solar energy transformation (the simplest example is the use of solar panels; more complex technologies use the energy of photons and are based on the latest achievements of theoretical physics);

-

Incremental, continuous, or evolutionary innovations caused by gradual advances in previously existing technology. Examples are the transition of 3D printers from polymer materials to metals or ceramics, the constant improvement in mobile phones and data transmission protocols (from 1G to 5G), new methods of rapid gene sequencing, or the incredible evolution of photovoltaic systems based on silicon;

-

Transitional innovations refer to transferring and assimilating technology into a new field of application or industry. Examples include using 3D bioprinters in regenerative medicine, using smartphones to monitor patient health, adapting CRISP-R technology to treat genetic diseases, or integrating solar cells into household appliances ([31], p. 87–88).

A more traditional concept outlined in the Oslo Recommendations (version 2019) offers the following typology of innovation:

(1)

Product, service, or use innovation: improves existing products/services/use or introduces new ones;

(2)

Process or organizational innovations: changes in the way a company organizes its work and supply chain;

(3)

Innovations in the field of marketing and sales: changes in the presentation, distribution, pricing, and promotion of the offer;

(4)

Business model innovation: reorganizes the structure of income and expenses;

(5)

Technological innovations: create or integrate one or more new technologies;

(6)

Social innovations: respond to social needs, both in terms of their goals and methods [24].

The new version of the Oslo Guidelines mentions six types of innovations, although its first edition contained only four types: product, process, organizational, and marketing innovations. The need for an improved classification arose, in our opinion, because of the practical use of inventions by enterprises and organizations, which then tried to describe and systematize their own innovative activities for reporting. For countries where such activity is encouraged by the state and supported by preferential taxation, reducing the cost of commercial credit and other means, proving the fact of its implementation during the financial year is an essential factor in reducing the cost of research and, ultimately, new products. Companies that believe they are innovating but do not yet fall into any of the categories often initiate revisions to the relevant legislation. In Ukraine, this process could be observed during the introduction of electronic commerce and online payment systems. However, tourism digital innovations are not yet implemented en masse; they are developed and implemented mostly by individual entrepreneurs and amateurs, are chaotic in nature, are often not commercialized, and therefore are overlooked by specialists who develop various reporting forms. In addition, according to innovators, especially the younger generation, any bureaucracy harms the process of implementing ideas, so small and medium-sized businesses do not report on their own innovations, having neither time nor additional human resources for the process of drawing up the necessary reports. Therefore, legislators focus on the requests of large enterprises and professional associations, which, paradoxically, are supporters of traditional technologies in the tourism business of Ukraine. In the individualization of the consumption of tourist services, they also see an indirect but objectively present threat to themselves—especially intermediaries—in implementing services and creators of mass and/or typical products.

In today’s world, a person must quickly process vast amounts of information, so it is not surprising that reports about the appearance of this or that invention are lost in the flow of other, no less important information (in addition, consumers need to filter out text that is frankly unnecessary). Because of this, developers lose potential customers, even when planning an advertising budget. If the product is completely unknown in the market, the traditional marketing complex may not work. Mass media in the digital age are also moving to new standards and methods of presenting information, and the issue here is not even the media and sources of posting articles. People’s perception of news has gradually and seemingly imperceptibly changed, so media activity (as one of the links of big data) began to be investigated separately. In this sense, the Reuters study of 2022 is worth noting, as it analyses the work of journalists on the Internet [31].

More and more news organizations are actively adopting digital technologies and can offer their own journalism, improving content and distribution in a highly competitive market, fighting for readers’ attention. However, as the majority of audience attention and advertisement spending shifts to digital platforms, many new voices—from creators and influencers to activists and politicians—are carving out a niche for themselves, competing for attention with journalists.

For young people, these issues are compounded by differences in how new generations use media. If we look at the habits of those under 30, we see much less interest in direct contact with the news, different views of what journalism should look like, and much greater reliance on social media platforms. There is no single way in which these changes are taking place around the world. Still, both trends—the weakening of the connection between journalism and the majority of the public and the use of media by young people in ways that challenge inherited approaches to the business and practice of journalism—are present in almost every one of the countries covered in this report.

The target audience for such research is, of course, people using the web. A new term—“online population”—appeared in international statistical reports. There have long been resources that collect data about Internet users (general socio-demographic profile, behaviour when searching for information, use of technical means, etc.) [32]. You can obtain information by region and country about population access to the Internet and social networks.

The difference between the online and national populations will be small in northern and western European markets, where Internet penetration is typically above 95%. Still, the difference between the online and national populations will be significant in South Africa (58%) and India (54%), where Internet penetration is lower. As of the beginning of December 2022, almost 70% of the world’s population had access to the Internet (

Table 3. The number of Internet users in the world, December 2022 (compiled based on [32]).

Macro-Region of the World	Population	Share in the World Population, %	The Number of Internet Users on 30 June 2022	Share of Users from the Total Population, %	The Growth Rate of the Share of Users, 2000–2022	Share in the World Number of Internet Users, %
Africa	1,394,588,547	17.6	652,865,628	46.8	14,362	11.9
Asia	4,352,169,960	54.9	2,934,186,678	67.4	2467	53.6
Europe	837,472,045	10.6	750,045,495	89.6	614	13.7
Latin America and the Caribbean	664,099,841	8.4	543,396,621	81.8	2907	9.9
North America	374,226,482	4.7	349,572,583	93.4	223	6.4
Middle East	268,302,801	3.4	211,796,760	78.9	6378	3.9
Australia and Oceania	43,602,955	0.5	31,191,971	71.5	309	0.6
The World Combined	7,934,462,631	100.0	5,473,055,736	69.0	1416	100.0
Ukraine	43,314,442	0.55	40,912,381	94.5	n/a	0.75

) [32].

Over the past 20 years, the base rates of Internet use growth have been changed in hundreds and thousands, although trends by region, even with extremely large values, remain indicative. The share of developed countries—the macro-regions of Europe, North America, Australia, and Oceania—grew the least. This means that by 2000, which was taken as the basis for comparisons, the population was already provided with a connection in one way or another. The most significant growth was in Africa and the Middle East—probably for these countries, the introduction of the World Wide Web in this period can be considered an innovative activity [33]. However, in other countries, these technologies were already familiar and used for a long time. As of October 2024, over 5.52 billion people, more than 67.5% of the world’s population (estimated at 8.18 billion people), have access to the Internet ([34], p. 9). This widespread use of the Internet has significant implications for various service sectors, including the tourism industry. In Ukraine, as of January 2024, there were 29.64 million Internet users, i.e., 79.2% of the total population of 37.42 million people ([35], p. 15). The number of users in dynamics is shown in

Table 4. Dynamics of the number of Internet users in Ukraine (compiled based on [35]).

Indicators	Jan 2014	Jan 2015	Jan 2016	Jan 2017	Jan 2018	Jan 2019	Jan 2020	Jan 2021	Jan 2022	Jan 2023	Jan 2024
Population of Ukraine, million	45.2	45.1	44.9	44.8	44.6	44.3	44.1	43.7	43.3	36.1	37.4
Internet users, million	20.9	22.0	23.8	26.4	27.9	31.1	33.1	34.6	34.3	28.6	29.6
Share of Internet users in the total population, %	46.2	48.8	53.0	58.9	62.6	70.2	75.1	79.2	79.2	79.2	79.1
Annual growth of Internet users, %	-	2.54	4.23	5.92	3.63	7.65	4.85	4.12	0.04	0.01	−0.08

[35].

Thus, despite martial law and population decline due to forced migration and the destruction of communications infrastructure, Ukraine’s share of Internet users exceeds the global average by more than 10%.

While a select group of primarily elite news publishers around the world are reporting record digital subscriptions and revenue growth, more broadly, we are seeing interest and overall “consumption” of news have declined significantly in many countries, and trust in has fallen almost everywhere—although for the most part, it remains higher than before the start of the crisis caused by the pandemic. Another trend is so-called news fatigue, not just about COVID-19 but also about politics and a range of other topics, and the number of people actively avoiding the news is on the rise. Since the collection of the main array of data by Reuters specialists at the beginning of February 2022, a new threat to global security has appeared in the form of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The event clearly increased news consumption from all sources, but Digital News Report’s second five-country survey conducted in early April 2022 found further levels of selective news avoidance, even in countries like Poland and Germany that were directly affected by the conflict. This year’s clear through line is the changing habits of young people, especially those under thirty, which is the demographic that news organizations often struggle to reach. The group that has grown up with social media has not just changed; it has become even more distinct than it was in the past. There was even a dedicated study conducted on their use of the latest visual news networks, such as TikTok and Instagram, in three countries (UK, USA, and Brazil).

More broadly, this year’s data confirm that the various upheavals of the past few years, including the coronavirus pandemic, have further accelerated structural shifts towards a more digital, mobile, and cross-platform media environment, with further implications for journalism business models and formats. In some regions, we see a mixed picture of downsizing and layoffs; in others, there is optimism about new business models, industry collaboration, and innovation in broadcast formats. Moreover, there was growing concern everywhere about the looming economic crisis (the cost of living being of particular concern), which could force people to rethink how much they can afford to spend on media. In the five countries surveyed since the start of the conflict in Ukraine, people relied most heavily on television news, with countries closest to the hostilities, such as Germany and Poland, seeing the most significant increases in consumption. Selective avoidance of the news has increased even more due to the complex and oppressive nature of the coverage of the events.

Companies that aim to bring products to the market using online marketing tools have monitored and taken into account these trends because now the success of an advertising campaign depends not only on the intensity of repetition of messages among the target audience (people can remember the brand name, understand how to use the service, but will not want to buy it) but also from the formation of long-term positive associations with the manufacturer (or individual products). For the sale of tourist services, it is necessary to ensure the formation of positive associations with the country, the mentality of its population, and a specific destination. The presence of a blog (traditional text or video/audio streaming), specialized mobile applications, and professional pages on social networks and popular platforms semi-consciously create a connection between emotions and the product/service among consumers, and they gradually become more loyal to the brand. A professional article on an industry topic, even if it contains an appeal to buy a certain product in the text, is not perceived negatively because it provides valuable information from experts that is difficult to obtain from other sources quickly.

When planning to post information in online sources, it is necessary to understand the translation into which language(s) should be provided. If the company does not plan to go abroad, the need for multilingual sources does not appear, but this task becomes a priority for international companies. In addition to the official language, minority languages may be used in the country, and the rarer the language, the more difficult it is to find a qualified translator—especially if the digital services are provided virtually and the company does not have representatives in the country. Resources that offer services to the “global consumer” mainly contain content in English (or the most common language of the relevant macro-region, such as Spanish, Arabic, or Chinese). Still, in doing so they lose some of the consumers who type queries and customize the search results exclusively in their native language. Even in some EU countries, the most common language is not exclusively one official language: in Austria, in addition to German, Slovenian and Hungarian are also used in the two federal states.

The influence of social media continues to increase rapidly, with new social networks such as TikTok emerging and existing platforms such as Instagram and Telegram gaining significant popularity among younger audiences. As older users move away from Facebook (or, in many cases, never start using it), more visually oriented platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube are becoming increasingly popular for news among this group. The use of TikTok to find news has increased fivefold among 18–24-year-olds across all markets in just three years, from 3% in 2020 to 15% in 2022, while YouTube is increasingly popular among young people in Eastern Europe, the Asia–Pacific region, and Latin America [36].

What makes these networks so attractive to certain younger audiences? Surveys show that they are attracted to the informal, entertaining style of visual media platforms (and especially online video), describing them as more personalized and diverse than television, as a resource for fast-moving events such as the Russian–Ukrainian conflict, and as a place for niche interests, from pop culture to travel and health and wellness.

However, the popularity of online video does not mean that text and audio formats do not play a significant role in the news habits of young people. Young people under 35 still mostly prefer to read (58%) rather than watch (15%) the news—especially when looking for live coverage and news summaries or when following what is happening on a “must-know” basis. Some say they look for a combination of text and video content to understand information better. Others, particularly in the Asia–Pacific and Latin American markets, prefer audio formats such as podcasts that allow users to multitask while listening.

For the tourism sector, the following areas of digital service provision will be prioritized for analysis (that is, it is necessary to understand what technologies service providers use from related industries and how tourists gain access to them):

Activities of carriers, including all current modes of transport;

Accommodation facilities of all categories;

Cultural and entertainment events, indoor and outdoor (sports, music, festivals, business events, fairs, etc.), heritage, parks and gardens, theme parks, casinos, theatres, retail, food and beverage, and personalized experiences (spa, excursions, etc.);

Facilitators: organizations for the management of tourist territories, tour operators, guides, travel agents, travel insurance, currency exchange offices, and tourist information centres;

Other suppliers, including event organisers, security, maintenance, food and drink manufacturers, language schools, and interest clubs.

How all these companies offer services online is a ready-made market profile. Travel service providers need to better understand how to offer either a traditional or an innovative product and which data channels to use. For example, the target group is used to using mobile applications to book flights, but they book hotels mainly from wide-screen devices that give a better panoramic view of the vacation spot. Alternatively, suppose gamers are chosen as potential consumers of augmented reality. In that case, it is necessary to first pay attention to the technical characteristics of the equipment with which the visualization is created and distributed to avoid incompatibility during data transmission. It is necessary to investigate as many “experience providers” as possible for consumers of digital content to assess the likelihood of their transition from already distributed virtual services to virtual tourism products.

However, the technical characteristics of the equipment are essential not only when analysing the market of IT products [37,38,39,40]. Visitors to hospitality establishments who have been using “smart home” technologies in their own houses for several years (one of the areas of commercialization of the Internet of Things), will demand from expensive hotels not so much the richness of the interior as the smooth functioning of household appliances and systems—of course, if they are provided in rooms. They are more likely to choose hotels with already implemented familiar technologies. A tourism specialist needs to have at least a basic understanding of the digital technologies used by the target audience. In the above example, IoT (Internet of Things) is a system of interconnected computing devices, mechanical and digital machines, objects, animals, or people having unique identifiers (UIDs) and the ability to transmit data over a network without the need for human interaction or a person with a computer [41,42,43,44,45]. The IoT ecosystem consists of intelligent Internet-enabled devices that use embedded systems such as processors, sensors, and communication equipment to collect, send, and process data they receive from their environment. IoT devices share the sensor data they collect by connecting to an IoT gateway or other peripheral device, where the data are sent to the cloud for analysis or are analysed locally. Sometimes, these devices communicate with other connected devices and act on the information they receive from each other. Devices do most of the work without human intervention, although people can interact with them, such as setting them up, giving instructions, or accessing data.

The State of the Connected World 2023 report, which examines the use of IoT technology, uses the term “governance gaps” concerning the Internet of Things and related technologies. The governance gap is defined as the difference between the potential risks associated with a technology and society’s efforts to protect itself from those risks through laws, industry standards, and self-governance approaches aimed at achieving the greatest potential benefits of that technology for society. Six areas are evaluated: ethics and integrity, cyber security, equal access, environmental sustainability, financial and operational efficiency, as well as interoperability and system architecture [46].

• Ethics and honesty: Confidence that users of connected devices and related technologies are protected from unethical and irresponsible use of technology.
• Cyber security: Confidence that users of connected devices and related technologies are protected from cyber-attacks.
• Equal access: Users have confidence that connected devices and related technologies are accessible and useful to all members of society, regardless of geographic location, socioeconomic status, or other factors.
• Safety for the environment: Users’ confidence that connected devices and related technologies are environmentally safe.
• Financial and operational feasibility: User confidence that connected devices and related technologies can be used and will provide value throughout their life cycle in the context of rapid technological and social change.
• Interchangeability (reciprocity) and system architecture: The user’s confidence that connected devices and related technologies can work effectively and efficiently with each other.

Users are relatively confident in the quality and safety, which depend on the technical parameters and characteristics of the devices, but share doubts regarding the ethical factors of the Internet of Things environment and connected devices (Figure 5).

Not even 5% of respondents believed that the data transferred on the network would be used exclusively lawfully and would not be subject to cyber-attacks. Such a high degree of distrust can be provoked by the fact that during the pandemic in 2020–2021, many applications were used that were not sufficiently explicitly tested for compliance with ethics and privacy because developers were primarily oriented toward a different task. Now, when the pandemic threat is not perceived so acutely, users are beginning to pay attention to collecting and processing their data.

If we talk about the integration of the Internet of Things with digital tourism services, then the standard requirements of the market are as follows:

Development of universal software products for the most common operating systems;

The possibility of connecting devices for recording/transferring data to a PC;

Compliance with local technical standards.

The technical requirements include the following:

Availability of a documented SDK (software development kit) with prescribed API (application programming interface);

Online catalogues of applications;

Multitasking and support for 3D graphics, use of sensors and touch screens;

Use of the HTML5 platform for web applications;

Support for mobile payment systems;

Optimization of energy consumption.

In the Ukrainian market, the traditional limitation to the widespread introduction of these technologies was the high price of devices. Still, the issue did not arise with software because Ukrainian IT specialists primarily work for foreign manufacturing companies of various profiles, so they have an idea of international standards in the field of technology development (which actually have many local features) and the latest research and development in electronics programming and manufacturing.

Digital market profiles constantly change, but certain trends have persisted over the past few years. This applies to the growth of the global number of Internet and mobile service users. It can be argued that the trend is objective and directly correlates with population growth worldwide. Still, here it is worth noting that at least 10–15 years must pass before the new generation becomes interested in the Internet and acts as an independent user of services from mobile providers. Therefore, we would associate this trend with a gradual increase in incomes and/or an increase in the share of the paying population, which can be statistically represented by the same indicators.

The latest UN population figures show that as of October 2023, the world population was 8.06 billion people. This figure is slightly more than 1% higher than the previous year and the world population grew by 72 million in 2018. The latest data from GSMA Intelligence indicate 5.60 billion unique mobile subscribers worldwide today, which is equal to 69.4% of the world’s population. Mobile phone usage grew by 2.7% in 2023 with the addition of 145 million new users. In 2023, the number of Internet users grew by 3.7%, reaching 5.30 billion in October 2023. This figure equates to 65.7% of the world’s population, although the delay in reporting means that actual Internet penetration is likely higher than these numbers. As of the beginning of October 2023, the number of active users of social networks has increased to 4.95 billion, which is equal to 61.4% of the total world population. Active IDs have increased by 4.5% since last year, adding 215 million new users [36].

Internet users of working age spent an average of almost 7 h a day online in 2022, but this dropped to 6 h 37 min a day in 2023. This latest figure is remarkably close to the daily average for Q3 2019, shortly before COVID-19. The 2019 pandemic has had a profound impact on digital behaviour around the world. It is interesting to note that the figure for Q3 2019 also showed a decline compared to the equivalent of 2018, with the global average falling by 2.4 percent—or 10 min per day—over the period.

South Africans spend the most time online, with the “typical” user in the country now spending around 9 and a half hours a day using connected devices and services. Brazil is in second place, where netizens spend an average of 9 h 25 h a day, while the Philippines comes in third with 9 h 7 min a day. However, Japan is still at the opposite end of the spectrum, with the country’s international residents spending an average of less than 4 h per day online [36].

National producers of a virtual tourism product should pay attention to these statistics by country because their citizens, in the case of receiving content of interest to them, are more likely to spend additional time online than residents of those countries where recreational activities are of a more traditional nature.

Culture plays an important role in shaping this ranking, but the population’s average age is also a key factor. Overall, average daily Internet time tends to decrease with age, which may explain why Japan is at the bottom of this ranking.

The trend in recent years is also the decline in interest in the news; users are looking for more entertaining and “light” content that helps them eliminate thoughts about daily troubles. Indeed, the aforementioned Reuters Digital News Report shows that the number of adults who are “very” or “extremely” interested in news has fallen by a quarter over the past seven years, from 63% in 2017 to just 48% in 2023.

For developers of travel applications, it is necessary to understand what devices consumers will use, including IoT services, and what software will be required to connect the devices.

For example, consider data on the most common devices. The number of working-age Internet users using laptops and desktops continues to decline. Two out of three Internet users aged 16 to 64 now use these devices to access the Internet, which is a relative decrease of 4.7 percent (3.1 p.p.) over the past 12 months. There has been a particularly sharp decline in the use of computers owned by individuals who use them, with the data showing a drop of 8.6 percent compared to last year (−5.1 p.p.). Conversely, the use of work laptops and desktops increased slightly, with Internet access via these devices up 3.9 percent (+1.1 p.p.) compared to last year. For perspective, this decline in computer use has generally matched the increase in the use of phones to access the Internet, with the latest study showing that mobile access has increased by 3.8 percent (+3.5 p.p.) over the past 12 months [21]. These figures will be even higher for tourist consumption since it is most convenient to use the phone while travelling.

The consumption of tourism services is gradually moving into the digital space, creating a separate market with its borders, regulatory methods, and actors. Sometimes, it is tightly integrated with the physical, real world and online technologies used to ensure the speed and convenience of ancillary operations, such as booking services or searching for supporting information. At other times, it is an independent world that functions and develops according to the laws of the digital universe. Consumers and providers of travel services are often unaware of the scale, threats, and opportunities this market provides to each party. Researching current trends in the global digital market for services and the technologies that underpin it is therefore extremely relevant, especially for Ukraine, where the 2020–2021 pandemic and then hostilities in almost a third of the country’s territory (including both the temporarily occupied territory and adjacent areas) made it impossible to visit recreational facilities physically (Figure 6). As of the end of December 2024, the total number of damaged cultural heritage sites in Ukraine is 1255: 125 of national importance, 1055 of local importance, and 75 newly discovered sites [47].

The statistics relate exclusively to tangible (physical) man-made objects, which are considered permanently lost in the event of destruction. In addition, natural habitats are also partially or entirely destroyed, and part of the intangible cultural heritage is lost—in a broader sense, the way of life and authentic atmosphere of hundreds of settlements (villages and small towns), which cannot be recreated by repairing buildings. The local residents, whose daily life and the heritage of past generations distinguished each individual settlement, have either left or died. The authenticity of each local centre will have to be recreated artificially, raising more than one historical layer. Material objects of historical value dating back to earlier periods may have been preserved in museum collections in other regions. At the same time, relatively “young” monuments, no more than one hundred and fifty years old, have been destroyed over the past three years. The use of augmented or virtual reality is the only viable option for the creation of these images.

Projects to digitise attractions began to be proposed by developers exploring potential markets for innovative products and tourism professionals a few years before the pandemic. Still, these initiatives were known in narrow circles of specialists and did not reach the general public. Firstly, the cost and availability of the necessary technology were prohibitive for most consumers and small businesses. Secondly, the concept of “staycation” tourism was not a priority, as people were keen to travel more. This was further compounded by the fact that the older generation and various social movements were encouraging young people to spend at least part of their free time without gadgets. As with any invention, the initial phase of virtual tourism services was characterised by high development costs and negligible demand from the mass market. However, numerous successful examples of this technology have been found in Ukraine and abroad.

The most prominent digital heritage project at the European level is the European platform, which provides access to heritage collections from European museums, libraries, archives, and other sources, and the international platform Google Arts and Culture Project, created by the Google Cultural Institute. These platforms offer access to digitized artefacts and collections of cultural heritage objects worldwide [48].

4. Discussion

Today, virtual travel is an urgent need, not so much for commercial purposes but rather to guarantee the preservation of memories of people, places, and times that will never return [49,50,51,52,53].

1.

The Role of Virtual Tourism in the Context of Sustainable Development: Virtual tourism is a critical tool for sustainable tourism development by enabling access to cultural and historical landmarks without requiring physical travel. This contributes to reducing the environmental burden associated with transportation and mass tourism. Moreover, virtual experiences offer solutions for preserving and revitalizing cultural heritage sites, especially in conflict-affected regions, thus ensuring long-term socioeconomic and cultural sustainability.

2.

Digital Tools and Technologies for Virtual Tourism Experiences: Several projects were initiated with varying degrees of success in the period preceding the prohibition of physical travel (for example, like those described in [54,55]). Primarily, these endeavours stemmed from scientific research or amateur initiatives, with less frequency arising from initiatives by local tourism departments or the exploration of novel technologies by entrepreneurs seeking to ascertain their viability. For instance, the advent of the latest version of the HTML5 markup language enabled the simulation of individual elements in three dimensions. This technology attracted the interest of hotel owners, who could simulate live demonstrations of room interiors and guest meetings. However, viewing animations and movement from one point of the route to another required a network speed that most Internet users did not have at the time. Consequently, establishments that wished to demonstrate to visitors the potential of their accommodation had to settle for conventional video files. However, with the emergence of aggregator sites, the simplification of the booking process, the growth of Internet connection speeds, and the development of the mobile device market, the demand for 3D hotel room tours declined. Initially, travellers’ choices were based on price, reviews, and geographical location (e.g., proximity to the airport, historical centre, and recreational areas). Subsequently, they began to prioritize convenience, seeking a “one-click” approach, i.e., the time it takes for the user to search for and purchase a service is a key factor in determining its perceived quality, and virtual tours have become redundant due to the limited visual information they provide. Thirdly, the visual impact of a 3D journey is diminished on a small smartphone screen compared to a monitor, and it also increases traffic. As a result, 3D animation with transition points has remained a niche product, but it is now being used in virtual tours.

In 2017, an ambitious project was initiated, “Castles 360: Zakarpattia”, to digitise several historic castles and develop virtual and augmented reality tours. This initiative follows the growing popularity of castle tourism [56]. The project’s innovative approach lies in its comprehensive framework, which encompasses not only individual castles but also the development of tours that integrate them with other significant historical sites. The virtual tours were designed to recreate entire historical eras, incorporating information about historical figures and the region’s culture into the narrative of each castle. The tours also featured the integration of real online maps, the introduction of educational programmes, and thematic classes. All materials were planned to be published in six languages: Ukrainian, English, Hungarian, Slovak, Czech, and Polish. The intention was to reproduce architectural models on a 3D printer as auxiliary display objects and souvenirs. Unfortunately, no funds were found for this project (an estimated USD 85 thousand).

The ReHERIT project, funded by grants in 2018–2022, was more successful; its achievements are still used today [57]. Although not on such a large scale, the project continues. In 2018, the main focus was on preserving the cultural heritage of the town of Uman and substantiating a strategy for the restoration of the city’s historical and architectural monuments and protecting them from unauthorised use, with further sustainable use and integration into modern social and economic life. The authors’ of the project work, which has been tested in Lviv (as demonstrated on their website “Open Heritage for Rebuilding: World Experience of Building Revitalisation”), can be implemented in post-war reconstruction programmes. The concept of open heritage involves using objects of historical value for the modern needs of residents while ensuring physical preservation and recreating their identity. This concept has emerged in European countries as an alternative to conserving smaller historical and cultural sites that cannot compete with the most famous tourist attractions. European countries often lack the funds to maintain smaller historical and cultural sites and thus the concept of open heritage helps to preserve their condition or at least prevent their destruction.

The underfunding of numerous local assets has contributed to their gradual decline, resulting in a modest restoration within the scope of local budgets, which cannot restore the asset to its original state. Furthermore, the number of tourist visits has been negligible and is not expected to increase, even following a full restoration. This sober economic view of illiquid real estate in the recreational sector, which can only be profitable by transferring it to commercial use or by demolishing it to make way for a modern residential building or enterprise, has led to the loss of many local attractions. However, if the foundation and walls are intact, along with preserved drawings, photographs, and, ideally, eyewitness accounts, the monument can be restored and preserved digitally using augmented reality. However, once a certain level of destruction has occurred, the object cannot be used as an open heritage site, as this concept presupposes elemental materiality. A gradual increase in virtual and “real” visitors would allow funds to be raised for partial renovation and preservation of what remains. Digitisation was identified as a key strategy to preserve detailed images, ensuring the material remains accessible and can be reproduced in the future.

3.

Digital Content Consumption and Shifting User Preferences: The rise of virtual tourism coincides with increasing digital content engagement. Changing leisure habits, especially during the pandemic and wartime conditions, intensified online presence. Users now favour brief, intuitive digital interactions, seeking rapid access to information and services. Traditional 3D tours lost appeal due to poor compatibility with mobile platforms. Virtual experiences must, therefore, adapt to evolving consumer expectations for efficiency, relevance, and personalization. Modern platforms integrate user behaviour analytics to enhance service quality and target content delivery. Efforts to digitize destroyed or endangered monuments intensified during wartime. The project in 2023 was dedicated to preserving monuments destroyed due to the hostilities in Ukraine. According to the report, expeditions were conducted in the Chernihiv, Sumy, Kyiv, and Kharkiv regions for a period of six months, during which evidence of damage to Ukrainian cultural heritage from the Russian invasion was collected. By January 2024, a total of twelve regions had been surveyed. The primary methods employed by the experts included photographic documentation of damage, documentation of losses under the ICCROM (International Centre for the Study, Conservation, and Restoration of Cultural Property) methodology, eyewitness interviews, and collection of evidence of crimes against culture according to the SCRI (Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative) methodology. Additional methods were utilized, such as aerial photography and laser scanning for 3D models [58]. The online platform heritage.in.ua (accessed on 16 January 2025) [59] was created, where the data based on the results of documenting the loss of cultural heritage was transferred with a geolocation reference. According to project experts, the creation of databases of damaged sites has a dual purpose: first, it will help to plan the restoration of monuments systematically, and second, it will provide an evidence base for the International Criminal Court for crimes against culture. A comprehensive methodology for documenting losses has been developed and tested in practice, starting with field surveys and ending with digitizing the results and organizing the database. Unfortunately, as of the beginning of 2022, no comprehensive recreational cadastre had been created in Ukraine; instead, there were separate lists of different categories of objects, various institutions were responsible for maintaining and compiling the registers, and even more so, the existing lists were not digitised using a unified approach. This complicates the work of experts, who are often forced to develop registers independently and remove duplicate data. In addition to purely technical difficulties, the lack of officially approved registers (in fact, a structured and systematic list can be easily transferred to an electronic database; time is more the issue than technical complications) does not allow for quick and unambiguous identification of the legal status of an object, whether it is a monument of local or regional significance if it has defined boundaries, who is primarily responsible for its monitoring, and which institution to contact in case of questions about its operation.

Private companies that provide digitisation services have begun to emerge, and many teams work partly on a volunteer basis. For example, they recreate objects for free or create projects for local museums, which they then include in their portfolios and try to find sponsors. This relatively new social business model is gaining traction in IT, where specialists simultaneously carry out commercial and charitable projects. In September 2024, Imersum and EMuseum specialists in virtual and augmented reality modelling, together with the National Museum of Chornobyl, with the support of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation, presented the Images of the Courageous project dedicated to the liquidators of the Chornobyl accident. Using a “virtual mirror”—one of the areas of augmented reality technology that allows the user to interact with digital objects in real time—visitors were able to try on protective suits used by the liquidators [60,61].

4.

Virtual and Augmented Reality for Cultural Heritage Preservation: The Case of Ukraine: Several Ukrainian projects exemplify the application of AR/VR in preserving destroyed cultural landmarks. The “Images of the Courageous” project (2024), supported by the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation, used AR mirrors to showcase Chornobyl liquidators’ gear. The CityFace project created inclusive digital databases of Eastern Ukrainian urban culture. International collaborations focused on archiving Ukrainian heritage, attracting global attention to cultural losses. Some projects originate from social movements and NGOs that did not initially intend to engage in IT. Participants of the CityFace project [62], which was founded in 2018 as an initiative of academics to conduct interdisciplinary research on the cities of eastern and southern Ukraine (primarily Dnipro, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa, and Kharkiv), have posted a database of tourist attractions with a user-friendly search filtering system and an online map on their website. The project also includes recordings of interviews with experts collected over several years. The project is noteworthy for its inclusivity, where individuals are encouraged to contribute to the image repository. The team behind the project actively invites participation through the website, emphasising a welcoming environment. Additionally, the images are shared in their original state, with minimal post-processing, which adds authenticity to the collection. While some images may not meet professional standards, they accurately reflect the style of photographs taken by tourists for personal use, often spontaneously and expeditiously.

Among the international research initiatives, we would like to mention the project on preserving cultural heritage in the digital format, “Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage in Digital” (SaveUCHdigital), which aims to familiarise Ukrainian specialists with the European experience of digitizing and archiving online materials. The Competence Centre for the Conservation of Cultural Heritage (4CH) project (https://www.4ch-project.eu/, accessed on 16 January 2025) unites researchers from Italy, Belgium, Lithuania, Poland, and the United Kingdom. The Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities and Cultural Heritage has launched the initiative Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online (SUCHO) https://www.sucho.org, accessed on 16 January 2025, with the primary objective being the physical preservation of digitised data stored on Ukrainian servers and the backing up of digital collections, including those of archives, museums, and libraries [63]. The initiative has been designed to attract the attention of the international community, especially young people from the United States and Canada to the problem of the destruction of Ukraine’s cultural heritage. It does this by means of an online wall of memes about the war and an online exhibition in a more traditional format, both of which are part of the SUCHO project.

The WarCity project, or the War at Close Quarters, ref. [64] is a fully virtual museum of the war in Ukraine. Its exhibits are 360° circular panoramas created using drone video and 3D modelling. According to the project’s website, a special focus is on creating 3D models of historical heritage monuments and buildings and demonstrating war crimes using VR glasses and immersive exhibitions. A notable event was the exhibition held on 2–3 December 2024 at the University of British Columbia in Canada. Notably, War at Close Quarters is distinguished by its official website, which is translated into English and Chinese.

Projects to digitise Ukraine’s tourist attractions, which until 2022 were implemented exclusively in the leisure sector, have taken on new significance since the outbreak of hostilities. Drawing on the experience gained by the developers while working with various sites, interactive maps and models with new content were created, such as the Virtual Ukraine project. The database of tourist sites of the NGO Ukraine Incognita [65] will also become the basis for preserving and restoring destroyed monuments. Another organisation project, the Map of Victories and Memory of the Ukrainian People [66], is an online map with information about significant events and heroic deeds in the history of Ukraine. Implementing this map, or an equally large-scale project based on it, will be possible once hostilities have ended. This will require a period of time to verify information, collect data, and exclude information that cannot be disclosed.

The Skeiron project team began creating digital models of architectural monuments in 2016, including many destroyed during the last few years. However, many more have not yet been digitized and are severely damaged or destroyed. These models will facilitate the restoration of such monuments in the future. A recent initiative by Skeiron is the creation of a digital replica of the Mariupol Drama Theatre. According to one of the project’s founders, filming objects during wartime posed challenges, including the ban on recording geometric data, which was later partially lifted. However, when scanning an object, such as an architectural monument, it is necessary to record data in state coordinate systems, so geodesy or architecture specialists can use them later. Synchronizing actions with other teams is crucial, as the same monument may be digitized multiple times. This is less complex with minor artefacts, such as museum exhibits, but the process is still very time-consuming and labour-intensive. It has been suggested that museum staff should be trained to perform at least some steps themselves [48]. Such skills will likely become mandatory for most tourism, history, and culture professions. Platforms that allow for creating digital models of physical objects without special technical knowledge are emerging. Polycam, for instance, allows users to scan a 3D model with a smartphone and upload a file with a description to the open cloud. Registration is free, with the paid option [67].

Most resources described above are immediately duplicated in English, facilitating much easier access to national content. These initiatives are significant for two key reasons. Firstly, they showcase the nation’s digital capabilities to the global stage. Secondly, they provide a swift and effective dissemination of crucial information, effectively countering the influence of Russian propaganda. The only drawback at present is the blurring and decentralisation of resources, the lack of a single catalogue with links to similar projects, large ones involving the resources of state institutions and international organisations, and small artistic initiatives on a volunteer basis. Most innovative projects, like keywords, may not be discovered without clear search criteria.

In the authors’ opinion, it would also be beneficial to create catalogues and an archive of publications in the global media and sources from different countries on the war in Ukraine. This could be an online library with search and filtering functions by topic, publication, country, etc. Such a resource would not only fulfil an informational function but also confirm that citizens of different countries had access to reliable information and could be repeatedly referenced in the future. For example, an article published based on a podcast of The World, the longest-running radio news program in the United States [68], explains how photogrammetry technology can help preserve destroyed cultural and architectural monuments in the example of the Chernihiv Regional Library for Youth.

The latest Internet infrastructure will see a move towards almost complete decentralisation of data at all levels of storage and management. New models, ranging from fully centralised to fully decentralised, will challenge traditional organisational management structures, infrastructure management, and expertise transfer.

The creation, collection, processing, and use of new types of personal, bodily, and predictive data can challenge existing expectations and definitions of privacy. Virtual and augmented worlds will allow people to inhabit spatial experiences, and digital content will be overlaid on the physical world. This will create an enhanced sense of presence in digital space that was not previously present. This raises the question of compatibility between our existence in the physical and virtual universes. The virtual movement through digital ecosystems will allow money, identities, and objects to be broadcast in an artificial environment and gain the experience of the metaverse, questioning data management practices, jurisdictional issues, and social norms in virtual spaces [30].

According to the ReHerit project, Ukraine lacks legislation to support digitisation and suggests using the EU’s experience. As digital technologies evolve, the range of approaches and tools for preserving cultural heritage expands, prompting the European Commission to issue a Recommendation on the Digitisation and Online Accessibility of Cultural Material and Digital Preservation [50].

All parties involved in content creation are interested in increasing user loyalty, retaining existing subscribers and visitors, and attracting new ones. To achieve this, they will utilise technologies for tracking consumer actions on their resource and processing information (including sensitive personal data) received from them. These technologies have been employed for some time by various services and applications, and even the most common search engines offer results based on the user’s saved history and preferences. Users have the option to disable this function, as well as cookies. However, it is essential to note that web visitors may not necessarily be aware of the transmission of information about their devices and query history, especially given the lack of information literacy among the general public.

It is incumbent upon service or portal developers to ensure that personal data are not transferred to third parties without the provider’s permission. However, significant differences in the laws of different countries and the complexity of technical solutions make it impossible to ensure reliable control over data flows, especially if the user does not consider this issue. Conversely, the ability to collect and process depersonalised data are fundamental to big data technology. Strict restrictions may result in the resource owner receiving incomplete and fragmentary information, compromising service quality. For instance, owners of hotels and other accommodation facilities may be satisfied with data on visitors’ preferences from personal questionnaires they leave during registration and feedback after their stay. At the same time, transport and entertainment service providers need data on the physical movement of travellers, their average profiles and preferences for different types of recreation, and the criteria by which they choose their short-term (weekend tours) and long-term (annual vacations) destinations. Standard questionnaire data alone are insufficient to create a comprehensive profile; additional analysis is required, including semantic analysis of search queries related to travel. Not all countries require consumers to confirm their identity with a passport or equivalent document when checking in, so often the only source of information about guests is the results of informal surveys or extracts from booking system accounts, if they are available and if the hotel is connected to such a platform. The value of social media in terms of individual analytics cannot be overstated. Still, it should be remembered that many users have more than one profile, profiles may be private, and not all travellers are willing to share their page addresses with all service providers with whom they have only had one or two days of contact. This issue is not exclusive to owners of accommodation or other tourist facilities that tourists have visited physically and where some information can be obtained during a meeting. Still, it also extends to providers of purely digital services such as virtual tours, websites, and infotainment applications, especially if the consumer does not access the page from a mobile phone or installs a desktop version. In such cases, the most reliable information that can be obtained without violating confidentiality is the devices’ technical characteristics, the node’s geographical location from which the request was made, and where the consumer was theoretically located (IP address). However, this information would not be available if the virtual tourist activated the VPN.

Conversely, various augmented reality devices provide access to a different category of personal data called “biometric” data. These data, processed by mathematical algorithms, have long been used in various security systems, such as face recognition technology, which is common in airports, banking applications, and modern smartphones; even earlier, user recognition technology was introduced by reading a fingerprint. CCTV security technology in public places can also serve as an additional source of information on the movement of people, with the definition of their general characteristics. Even an audio guide in a museum can be equipped with a basic device that stores usage logs, enabling the determination of how quickly visitors move, which exhibits they are most interested in, which materials they listen to in full, and which information they find uninteresting.

5. Conclusions

The rapid rise in Internet usage has considerably impacted the travel industry, with the online environment significantly influencing how people plan, book, and make travel arrangements. There are already clearly defined trends on the technical side, with virtual tours offered by many tourism departments for geographical local destinations, accommodation facilities, and some famous attractions, such as museums. These immersive and authentic experiences allow travellers to explore different options before making travel decisions. While the digitisation of tourism services is being introduced gradually in other countries, following changes in consumer preferences, in Ukraine, the virtualisation of tourism is often the only way to revitalise the destroyed cultural and historical heritage.

Therefore, strategizing the restorative development of tourism in Ukraine for a long-term period will include four stages:

(1)

The implementation of virtual tours and other types of digital tourism using digital marketing technologies carried out in accordance with the concept of ethics of digital consumption. This stage should start by using the available intellectual capital in IT because Ukraine has many IT specialists and enthusiasts ready to join this field. The task of this stage is the digitization and organization of as many materials as possible of the historical, cultural, and modern ethno-social heritage, which was destroyed, is under threat of destruction, or, on the contrary, received an additional impetus for development due to the presentation of Ukraine in the world as a civilized progressive state. The virtual tours developed at this stage will create the basis for the further formation of the recreational cadastre of physical objects of the real world, thus supporting the positive image of Ukraine in the world.

(2)

The selection of the most economically effective recovery strategy and the approval of the classification of depressed regions, considering the postulates of a cyclical economy. It is necessary to determine which territories will be prioritized for reconstruction and to develop mutually agreed strategies for revitalizing natural habitats, constructing cities, and creating enterprises of a new format that will meet the needs of reconstruction and attract investments, including for innovative activities. It is recommended that a plan be created to place productive forces in depressed areas to restore business activity in all regions of the country gradually.

(3)

A comparative analysis of strategies and stochastic processes that took place in the territories of countries in which hostilities occurred, which is an ongoing process that reinforces stages 1 and 2. In the 20th and 21st centuries, there were many local conflicts, but almost every country managed to restore its economic and recreational potential, at least partially. Creating a national think tank or a network of similar research centres will allow for analysis of the experiences and mistakes of states that have experienced wars and natural disasters in their territories, and the received recommendations will be used as a basis for national and local strategies. The analysis of the potential of international cooperation requires special attention because a significant part of the population of Ukraine is abroad, and even if some of the population does not return to the Motherland in the coming years, such individuals can provide invaluable experience and contribute to the establishment of economic ties in their host countries.

(4)

The number of resources is calculated, and predictive models of alternative development options are built. After preliminary calculations, we come to the operational and tactical planning stage for the practical implementation of recovery strategies. Determining the scope of work and reference points for projects of different durations is necessary. For each territory (their boundaries may not coincide with the boundaries of administrative units), it is necessary to approve a detailed plan of activities for the next 5–10 years and a vision for developing its economic potential for the next few decades. We reckon that the strategies of ultra-long-term planning are relevant, first of all, for the most destroyed territories, which are unprofitable and dangerous to include in economic circulation immediately after the cessation of conflict.

The perspective of future research within the theme scope is to draw parallels between the consequences of contemporary conflicts for the global community; for this, it is necessary to calculate the areas of the territories in which these conflicts have taken place, as well as the human and economic losses sustained by the involved parties. This, in turn, will more objectively demonstrate the consequences of armed conflicts (it should be noted that the analysis of natural and technological cataclysms and acute social conflicts can supplement the data). The historical method should be combined with georeferenced statistical data mapping, distinguishing various layers (i.e., armed, social, national, global conflicts, natural disasters, pandemics, etc.) concerning a specific geographical area.