Despite its rich history, culture and natural resources, Ukraine has done little to promote foreign tourism. And now, as multiple crises set in, even once-popular tourist destinations are empty and Ukraine's hospitality industry is reeling.
For such cities such as Odesa, which largely depends upon tourists, the economic consequences can be catastrophic.
With the international media focusing only on Ukraine’s bad news, how can the country possibly hope to market itself as a popular and safe tourist destination?
A concerted international advertising and targeted-marketing campaign might be a good place to start. Specialists believe that a coordinated drive within the local tourism industry as a whole and supported by the Ukrainian government could finally put Ukraine on the international map for travelers.
“Advertising is only effective if it is used together with a whole package of promotional mechanisms,” says Helene Lloyd, director of TMI Consultancy, a United Kingdom firm that developed marketing strategies to encourage Russians to travel to Japan, Hong Kong and Jordan. She says the first step is to create a strong Ukraine brand and then to create the strategy that will identify target countries as well as target segments within those countries.
Young people walk past a billboard advertising a Turkish travel agency on May 20 in Kyiv. (Anastasia Vlasova)
Lloyd says that tourism strategies now concentrate on niches, such as cuisine, golf, health and wellness, or rural tourism. Advertising is less effective here, as it is too expensive and not specific enough. Social media campaigns are more cost-efficient and sophisticated for niche markets, she advises.
According to David Jenkins, executive vice president of JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group working in former Soviet republics, Ukraine was pretty much off the international tourism map even before the revolution and Russia’s war.
Even when it had such strong opportunities as co-hosting the 2012 European soccer championship, Ukraine did “nothing as a country, or even within cities and regions to boost tourism. It has some tourism jewels like Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa and the Carpathian Mountains – but nowhere were they promoted. Investors built hotels and resorts. New airports were built. But still, there was no consolidated effort made to promote.”
Before the crisis, Jenkins says, Kyiv could only achieve about 55 percent average hotel occupancy, while comparable historical cities like Prague and Budapest run above 70 percent, which is the benchmark. And Kyiv occupancy has now dropped to 30 percent.
According to the State Statistics Committee, the number of international inbound tourists to Ukraine fell from more than 22 million in 2013 to just under 13 million in 2014, a 48 percent drop. In 2013, Russians comprised almost half of Ukraine’s international tourists, while the number of Russian visitors plummeted a staggering 77 percent, with eight million fewer coming to Ukraine last year.
Traditional Sri Lankan dancers perform during a tourism fair in the International Exhibition Center on March 27, 2013 in Kyiv. (Anastasia Vlasova)
The crisis, while devastating in the short term, could provide longer-term opportunity for Ukraine’s tourism.
Nick Erkomaishvili, chief exploration officer of Explore Georgia in Tbilisi, says that Russia’s six-day war with Georgia in 2008 hurt tourism badly. It also created greater awareness of the country internationally. Shortly after the war, Erkomaishvili visited a travel fair in London. “It was quite funny,” he says. “Everybody knew about Georgia, but they did not remember why they knew.”
Georgia provides other guideposts for Ukraine. The Georgian government invests significantly in the development of its international tourism. The Georgia National Tourism Agency, under the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development, works with the industry to create a brand identity and to develop tourist infrastructure and improve service quality.
Georgia has also cannily nurtured the international travel press. Erkomaishvili says ensuring that Georgia is regularly featured on CNN, the Travel Channel, and French, German, and Spanish travel programming has been effective.
TMI’s Lloyd agrees that Ukraine’s government and tourism industry need to court foreign travel media, but with a highly customized approach to individual journalists and their specific audiences. “A well-organized press trip with 8-10 high-end media can provide coverage equivalent to 100,000 euros of advertisement,” she says. This coverage will have significantly more impact, she advises, because people tend to read articles written by well-known journalists, while skipping over a one-page advert.
Jenkins also thinks that an organized advertising campaign could work for Ukraine, if well-coordinated. “It is vital that tourist authorities are joined up with airlines, hotels, conference centers, ski resorts, golf clubs, and so on,” he says. He cites campaigns by Spain, Turkey, Greece, and most recently, Croatia as successes in this regard.
In 2014, Turkey’s government rolled out an international tourism campaign called, “Turkey, Home of…..” featuring photos from all over Turkey by the world’s leading photographers and with Turkish Airlines taking part. “Turkish Airlines collaborates with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Turkey very closely in order to present Turkey as one of the best countries for tourism,” the airline’s senior vice president of media relations, Ali Genc, said in a statement to the Kyiv Post.
But meanwhile, just across the Black Sea from bustling Istanbul and Batumi, Odesa seems like a ghost town.
