Why Demand for Agritourism Will Grow After the War
Most Ukrainians are fairly optimistic about rebuilding the country after the war, that is, after our victory. Experts believe it will take about five years to fully rebuild the country.
In general, plans for reconstruction unite people and give a sense of solidarity and determination.
Tourism is among the top three industries in the world by income generated
During the war, a great many cities and communities appeared on the map of Ukraine, and of the Kyiv region in particular, that have resisted and continue to resist the aggressor unbreakably and heroically. Mariupol, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Bucha, Hostomel, Irpin, Borodianka and many other cities and communities. Even those who have never been there are already proud of them. Both Ukrainians and foreigners will want to visit the places where Russian criminals committed atrocities and where our people heroically fought for freedom.
Such aspirations can be seen as a desire to embrace the country, to feel the value that has risen significantly for each of us during these terrible days of war.
Russia’s war against Ukraine raises fears that foreigners will not come to us for a very long time. However, the world has many examples where, after large-scale conflicts, countries recovered quickly and became attractive to guests in a new way.
The upheavals caused by war bring great changes and leave deep wounds, a new heritage is created, and post-conflict “memory tourism” over time blends with other types of tourism – cultural, gastronomic, sports, mountain, sea, green and others.
The Kyiv region is a powerful tourist magnet.
In the Kyiv region, rural tourism has sufficient potential and every opportunity for successful and sustainable development – a unique natural complex, a favourable climate, fertile lands, the hospitality of local residents, and leisure facilities in the countryside: homesteads, peasant and farm households, rivers, ponds and so on.
We have our own sea (the Kyiv Reservoir) and our own Carpathians (the Vasylkiv Carpathians landscape reserve), unique parks and nature reserves, the Chornobyl revival zone, amazing places of power on the slopes of the Dnipro, canyons and many, many more attractive tourist curiosities.
During the global pandemic, the position of domestic tourism strengthened significantly: rural green tourism and its varieties became increasingly relevant. And given today’s realities, we advise homestead owners and farmers to quickly study demand, prepare interesting offers, advertise effectively, establish quality service at moderate prices, and cooperate with tour operators.
One way or another, rural households in the green tourism sector will have to diversify their activities – producing agricultural products, providing gastronomic and hospitality services, and selling new knowledge and emotions about rural development, nature, ecology, landscape and so on.
Tourists’ demands for modern infrastructure, a range of services and service quality, even in rural areas, grow every year, so homestead owners should constantly develop and improve their business in line with today’s requirements, raise their own professional level and that of their staff, and take care of tourists’ safety.
That is why, only last year, on the initiative of the Kyiv Regional State Administration, under the umbrella brand “Wine and Taste Roads of Ukraine” and in line with EU standards, a network of organised oeno-gastronomic tourist routes of Kyiv Oblast was created and successfully began to operate. Its main points of interest are gastronomic locations, namely restaurants, local producers, places open to visitors, gastro-tourism complexes and so on.
The system created by the project solves the most important question facing the host side: how to combine the best offers and landmark sites of the region so as to preserve and develop the historical, cultural and gastronomic heritage and interest guests in visiting the Kyiv region and spending money there, receiving quality services and good impressions. This is exactly the experience of developing oeno-gastronomic tourism that we are putting into practice in the region.
Volunteering that knows no bounds
From the first day of the war, in the hour of the region’s greatest trials, activists of the oeno-gastronomic project “Wine and Taste Roads of Ukraine” supplied their own products free of charge for the urgent needs of the Armed Forces, hospitals and people affected by the war.
A great deal of various humanitarian aid was delivered to the destroyed towns and villages. And the bakery “Vytach”, which opened after the war had already begun, kept baking bread during the fiercest fighting in the Kyiv region.
Joining forces with Kyiv restaurateurs and volunteer partners, the participants of “Wine and Taste Roads of Ukraine” created a powerful Gastro-Army.
Gastro-Army of the Kyiv Region: 180 tonnes of food for the army and affected regions
New tourism trends
The Kyiv region has already begun to recover from the enemy invasion, but it will take time to fully clear the region of mines. Demining work continues.
Every day State Emergency Service workers face new threats. So far, more than 30 thousand explosive items have been found and neutralised. They are found everywhere: on roads, in houses. The work continues. Demining of the main directions is planned to be completed in May.
It is clear that we will see new holiday trends in Ukraine that our citizens will favour after the war:
demand for recreational tourism will grow. Trips to familiar native places, growing interest in traditions;
Ukrainians will want to see with their own eyes the cities of our military successes and the places brutally shot up by the enemy
During Russia’s war against Ukraine, more than 10 million Ukrainians have been forced to leave their homes. Many people left abroad. Of course, there is no question of travelling around the country for tourism in such conditions.
Integration into another environment inevitably involves immersion in everyday life and learning the language and traditions. Forced to seek refuge in other countries, Ukrainians walk the streets of cities with architecture unusual to us, try different dishes, and meet and talk with foreigners, learning about their culture and way of life.
They visit tourist sites, squares and churches, stay in hotels and holiday centres among other places, and after returning home they will want to travel more around their own country. I believe that once they return home soon, they will want to travel around Ukraine. But such domestic tourists will be more demanding, because they have seen how everything is arranged in other countries.
One of the key tasks for everyone is to find new tools and approaches, find investors and implement innovations, so that people continue to discover post-war Ukraine and do so comfortably and safely.
Creating new locations
The tourism industry will develop, which means that new trends in the sector will gradually be introduced. In addition, young people’s interest allows us to predict that global trends towards digitalisation and the integration of environmental friendliness will appear much faster. We should prepare for the fact that the future will arrive very quickly.
And we are now working on the concept of future locations such as, for example, the “Museum of the Genocide of the Ukrainian People”, which manifested itself in inhumanity, violence and looting.
The goal is to unite the world community and consolidate the efforts and capabilities of the civilised society of the planet in the fight against the genocide of any nation. We want to show the heroism of the Ukrainian people, the Armed Forces and the territorial defence in the struggle for independence, the territorial integrity of Ukraine and the liberation of the Kyiv region from the invaders.
The museum will present true evidence of the war crimes of the Russians, nicknamed by the people orcs and rashists.
Already today we are focused on:
promoting the development of tourism products;
improving the excellence of tourism products;
encouraging partnership in the tourism sector;
creating favourable conditions for marketing tourism products in the Kyiv region.
Our powerful and modern portal Travel the Kyiv Region is already up and running, and it is a very convenient and effective promotion tool for owners of tourist locations.
Key to the development of the region’s tourism products will be both the already well-known tourist magnets of the region and new places that became tragically famous during the Russian occupation of the Kyiv region.
Anna Kutsenko, Head of the Tourism Department of the Kyiv Regional State Administration, specially for 
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