Steps of amalgamated hromadas to develop tourism and challenges they encounter, trying to increase the number of guests.

By Dmytro Synyak

Almost all hromadas agree that tourism development is extremely important for their future. However, the majority of them do not even imagine how to develop it. Decentralisation.gov.ua had fairly frank conversations with representatives of two hromadas, who, in fact, managed to do some work in this direction. The third hromada is interesting because, having a huge flow of tourists, it has not managed to benefit from it, besides, tourism is only one of many directions in the AH development strategy.

 Volodymyr Chobotar, starosta of the village of Chervona Dibrova, Hlybotska AH of the Chernivtsi Oblast:

I consider the branding of the Chervona Dibrova village, which we have always positioned as a tourist one, as our indisputable merit. What is important, the BRANDVILLE project fulfilled this work for us free of charge, having designed not only the logo, but also a whole range of souvenir products: magnets, booklets, t-shirts, calendars, kitchenware... We also received a video that we spread through social networks. We paid only UAH 4000 for the production of souvenir samples. In addition, we got a good PR campaign: 1+1 and Ukraine TV channels made free broadcasts of the development of our hromada.

Our activity has finally convinced one entrepreneur, who had long wanted to open an equestrian club, but hesitated. Now the club is under construction, and we hope that it will soon become one of our local attractions.

I also have great hope for holding festivals in our AH.

Volodymyr Tiron, head of the Kamyanska amalgamated hromada of the Cherkasy Oblast:

Almost every day we welcome a bus with tourists, willing to look at the Tiasmyn Canyon. We have about 800 visitors each month – a great stream for a small town. With the help of the Cherkasy Oblast Administration and Local Government Development Centre, we created a project that won the competition, and received funding from the State Fund for Regional Development. When all work is done, the number of tourists should grow by at least 2-3 times.

The hromada will be able to make profits of tourism only if visitors stay in the AH for night. Therefore, two floors of the abandoned hotel will be converted to offices, and rest of the premises will be renovated into 100 modern rooms. Another small hotel will appear in the town after the reconstruction of one communal building.

We are also working to create a travel agency to serve all tourist flows.

Nataliya Sorochynska, head of the Tarakanivska amalgamated hromada in the Rivne Oblast:

We amalgamated in November of last year, and had too little time to change something radically. There is a famous Tarakaniv Fort of the First World War on the territory of our hromada, which is part of the seven wonders of the Rivne Oblast. Every year there are a lot of tourists coming here, but our AH cannot benefit from it. The main reason is that the fort is on the balance of the Ministry of Defense, along with the adjoining 64 hectares, and in all documents it occurs as a military town No 13. At the moment, everything we can do to save the fort is to clean it up on a voluntary basis.

Two weeks ago, a Defense Ministry commission visited Tarakaniv, and had to take some steps to transfer the fort to the balance of the oblast council. Though I do not know its decision. If the the fort and at least part of the land around it are transferred to the oblast, finding an investor will not be a problem.

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