MARKETING FACTORS OF COMPETITIVENESS MEDITERRANEAN MARKET OF TOURIST SERVICES

The article analyzes the system of marketing factors of the competitiveness of the Mediterranean leisure industry since the promotion of tourist services today becomes impossible without the use of modern technologies. It is noted that the digitalization of marketing communications allows for the formation of unique competitive advantages of the Mediterranean tourism industry through the use of an integrated approach to the most effective combination of classical marketing provisions and the potential of modern technologies in the competitive environment of the tourism industry. Classical marketing techniques and digital technologies offer enormous potential for maximizing tourism revenues, increasing tourism demand, improving the quality of supply and facilitating communication. The influence of marketing elements on the competitiveness of the tourism industry of the Mediterranean countries is evaluated. It has been proven that this influence is uneven and differs according to the destination and the stage of creation and provision and implementation of the tour service. This influence is observed most in the sphere of pricing in Spain and least - in the sphere of tourism product promotion in such European countries as Albania and African countries - Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. Directions for the analysis of the competitiveness of destinations in the Mediterranean region are proposed, which can be carried out according to different criteria and through different perspectives, such as: customer expectations, tourist satisfaction and service value, tourist and destination motivations, branding, destination attractiveness, destination sustainability and destination value. It is emphasized that, in contrast to classical marketing, modified tourism marketing was formed as a mix that includes seven elements: tourism product, tourism product pricing, distribution of tourism services, tourism promotion, human potential, service provision process and customer service, and which to varying degrees provide competitive advantages of the countries of the Mediterranean basin. It is shown that the competitiveness of the Mediterranean tourism industry has a double structure. Its first element is the process of positioning tourist products on the market of leisure services, the second is the efficiency of the operational activities of tour operators. It has been confirmed that the drivers of the main changes in the market of tourist services of the Mediterranean that have occurred recently are the intensive introduction of information technologies in marketing activities, where the main trends in the development of the leisure industry have become the globalization of the tourist business and the dominance of Internet technologies in the system of promoting tourist services.