Legal regulation of sports tourism development in Ukraine

The article is devoted to a comprehensive analysis of the legal regulation of sports tourism development in Ukraine in the context of contemporary socio-economic transformations, European integration processes, and post-war recovery. The relevance of the study is substantiated by considering sports tourism as an interdisciplinary phenomenon combining tourism and physical culture and sports, as well as an effective instrument for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly in terms of promoting public health, social inclusion, and sustainable territorial development. At the same time, the realization of this potential directly depends on the quality and systematicity of legal regulation in the field of sports tourism. The purpose of the study is to determine the specific features of the current legal framework governing sports tourism in Ukraine, to identify systemic gaps and inconsistencies in legislation, and to substantiate scientific and practical recommendations for its improvement in accordance with European standards and principles of sustainable development. The methodological basis of the research includes general scientific and special legal methods, in particular analysis and synthesis, formal legal, systemic-structural, and comparative legal methods, which made it possible to comprehensively characterize the legal environment of sports tourism and identify key trends in its development. Scientific novelty lies in the author’s approach to defining sports tourism as a complex object of legal regulation located at the intersection of tourism and sports legislation, as well as in identifying priority directions for harmonizing national legislation in accordance with European standards of safety, inclusiveness, and sustainability. The practical significance of the obtained results consists in the possibility of their application in law-making activities, higher education processes, and the practical organization and management of sports tourism activities.