PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE OF USING GAME TECHNOLOGIES IN THE TRAINING OF YOUTH TOURISM SPECIALISTS

The article covers the issue of the application of game technologies in the training of specialists in the tourism industry for the organization of youth tourism. Scientific investigations of Ukrainian and foreign scientists regarding the use of game methods and technologies in higher education were analyzed. Game situations, cognitive games, didactic games were studied. Students were invited to participate in educational games, such as: intellectual quiz game "Researcher"; intellectual game "Missing words"; exercise "Zaporizhzhia excursion"; practical training exercise "I am the organizer"; intellectual game "Game Labyrinth". The situational exercise "Preparation for a tourist event" and the research exercise "Youth tourism" were implemented. Performing situational exercises and research exercises, future specialists in the organization of youth tourism formed skills in production activities. Game technologies, educational cafe, edutainment, and gamification are considered. The concept of "Knowledge café" consists of defining a topic, choosing "custodians", holding several measures with alternate movement of students, discussing and completing tasks and summarizing the results of the meeting. Themes for the "Knowledge café" game – "Ukraine – a youth tourist country" have been determined. Formulated questions for discussion: "Tourist locations/activities that can be used for youth tourism". The research exploited the "edutainment" technology through the use of the board tourist game "Travel to Europe". The new "gamification" technique was applied in the training of future specialists in the tourism industry for the organization of youth tourism, which is the process of adding games or game elements to the educational task in order to increase the motivation of students in the education process. Implemented using the educational platform Kahoot! gamified pairs aimed at testing students' knowledge through online testing in the form of quizzes and quizzes.