You're reading: Kyiv: New Stag Party Capital Of World?

After taking over Prague and Riga, organized stag parties are attracting growing crowds of raucous young men further east to Ukraine with the promise of cheap entertainment, alcohol – and, of course, beautiful women.

Foreign stag tour organizers say the local ladies are one of Ukraine’s main attractions, putting the country on the world’s party map.

Despite poor flight connections, rundown hotels and few English speakers, Ukraine is selling like hot cakes, travel agencies say. Affordable restaurants and no visa requirements for short stays make such trips all the more affordable and easy.

“Ukraine has the reputation of having the most beautiful ladies in Eastern Europe,” says Tony Munk, owner of the U.K.-based agency Ukraine Adventures, which offers stag weekends in Kyiv.

Critics warn that alcohol-fueled partying by groups of foreigners has brought unpleasant scenes to Central European cities such as Prague and Riga, where locals have complained of disrespectful drunken behavior. Women’s rights activists complain that many of the tours are thinly disguised covers for prostitution.

“We have such beautiful girls. This fact stimulates foreigners to come here,” says Yulia Gromova, a representative of Visit Kiev agency. She says her agency goes beyond stag nights and other types of wild parties to press other advantages. For instance, she works in partnership with marriage agencies to help foreigners find long-term love here, as opposed to helping them merely satisfy short-term lust.

There are several dozen British-based websites that organize stag tours and divorce parties. They appear to have sprung up within the last five years. A handful of others operate from Kyiv as well, often working as the local branch of a foreign partner organization. “Hen tours” – for parties of women only – are available as well.

A typical stag tour package includes a strip show or a city tour in a limousine in the company of a stripper, visits to restaurants and nightclubs, and sports activities and excursions.

The range of extra services includes anything from a vodka-tasting tour (from 20 euros per person) to “kidnapping,” a game in which the guest of honor is blindfolded, handcuffed and then taken to a club where the blindfold is removed and the real party starts.

Ukraine Adventures Company told the Kyiv Post that these packaged tours are popular with clients of all ages, from 16 to 60. But despite trying to meet the “stag party” demand, often clients includes people who are just out for fun rather than about to be married.

“We consider all wishes expressed by our clients and organize both individual and group tours,” says Gromova of Visit Kiev. Some services are quite inventive. The company’s website offers to book not only a tour but a female guide who will “be your friend or companion during the whole day (or night).”

The guides section on the site gives the potential client lots of full-length, sexy photos of pretty women ages 20 to 27, complete with essential information about their height and interests.

Ukraine in general is regarded as a sex tourism destination. We have free and easy conditions for it here,

– Kateryna Levchenko, president of La Strada Ukraine

At the cost of $40 per hour, the guide seems to be a real bargain. Weekend stag tours start from $200 per person, but the price does not include the flight, and the ads feature pictures of old Soviet hotels. Even meals in restaurants and entry to clubs will cost you extra.

The hottest destinations are Kyiv and Odesa.

Experts say that much of this industry is barely concealed prostitution, and that’s what many foreigners are seeking.

“Ukraine in general is regarded as a sex tourism destination. We have free and easy conditions for it here,” explains Kateryna Levchenko, president of La Strada Ukraine, an international women’s rights organization.

Unlike many European countries, Ukraine gives no jail sentences for either running a sex business, or for those buying sex services. Criminal cases have only been opened against foreigners who have had sex with minors, Levchenko says.

Selling sexual services is against the law, but considered a minor administrative offense, with fines for violators running up to Hr 15,000.
The image of a sexy nation – with perhaps a greater degree of moral flexibility than other places – is one that the government does more to embrace than discourage.

The State Border Guard service of Boryspil International Airport recently organized a photo shoot for the United Kingdom’s Daily Mail, a popular tabloid, of a special class for its female guards on makeup, hair styling and how to look beautiful.

“The Ukrainian government is concerned that it might not be putting its best face forward,” the newspaper explained. It also suggested that with stylish young female border guards, football fans coming to Euro 2012 will actually want to be stopped and questioned by the authorities.

Moreover, ticket sellers in public transport told the Kyiv Post that older women are being forced to take an unpaid leave for the duration of the football championship in May and June, to be replaced by young students from Kyiv Auto Transport University, complete with short skirts.
The Euro 2012 organizers could not be reached for comment on the issue.

Ukrainian stag tour operators are hoping that Euro 2012 will give their industry a boost. Visit Kiev agency even added a new section called Euro 2012 on its website.

“Of course we’re expecting a tourist boom during Euro 2012, a month before it and after it. We’ve already got some bookings,” Gromova says.
But Richard Mistik, managing director of the Stag For You company in Slovakia tells Ukrainians not to count their money already.

“Euro 2012 is not a period of bachelor parties. It is a period of football fans. I expect lower business than usual in June 2012, but the sport event will increase awareness about Kyiv in the long-term,” Mistik says.

Kyiv Post staff writer Anastasia Forina can be reached at [email protected].