Ukrainian Tourism Says Goodbye to the Dead Season
Larissa Kazachenko is a successful business woman with 15 years of experience in the tourism business. Her agency, Southern Tour, opened in 1996, specializes in cultural and historic tourism, along with exclusive individual programs, and is considered one of the most successful tourist agencies in Crimea. Until recently, her business fared well in the summer, but ground to a halt as winter approached.
Tourism has been vital for the Crimean economy – and for the livelihood of its people – for over a century. During Soviet times, Crimean hotels were guaranteed full occupancy despite neglected infrastructure, poor service and unreasonably high prices. For people who wanted a “sun and sea” vacation there were very few options – the borders were shut, after all.
With the lifting of the Iron Curtain, the world opened to Ukrainians, and they took advantage by exploring countries such as Turkey, Egypt and Spain, where they received exposure to better service, reasonable prices and vacation options beyond sunbathing on the overcrowded, poorly kept beaches to which they had become accustomed. To compete in this “new world,” the Crimea tourism industry has had to improve service, develop infrastructure and diversify offerings, while protecting its interests and attract investments. It also has had to eliminate the traditional dead season between October and April, when travel businesses large and small sat idle, waiting for the summer season.
To help Crimean tour operators in identifying opportunities in new product development and increasing their visibility and attractiveness in the fiercely competitive global tourism market, experts with USAID’s BIZPRO project targeted the large international tourism congress market as one of the solutions. They assisted tour operators in developing marketing plans and promotional campaigns, including providing market entry support. Larissa and several of her colleagues in the tourism industry were invited to attend the International Tourism Exchange ITB Berlin 2005, where they learned more about congress tourism, found new partners and attracted international congress tourists to Ukraine.
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Larissa Kazachenko, with her husband (right) and Mr. Maxi Gainza, a member of the elite British Air Squadron Club, during the Crimea vintage planes exhibition, as a part of 150th anniversary of the Crimean War commemoration (2005)
Photo Credit: Southern Tour |
The move into congress tourism transformed Larissa’s business. With BIZPRO’s assistance, she says, her agency has forgotten what a “dead season” means. “We are now busy even as the winter gets closer. I have hired extra staff and we have increased our profits. Congress tourism has in fact become a solution for us”.
Last year Southern Tour increased its annual sales by 160% from new contracts with the foreign tour operators it first contacted at the fair. This also led to increases in sales for more than 50 value chain members (partner hotels, travel agents, tourism bureaus, transportation and logistics companies etc). Moreover, Southern Tour was recently selected to be the official tour operator of the Second European Congress of Rural Tourism and the International Conference of TACIS Managers. More conferences are being planned for Crimea, and Larissa is actively negotiating with new foreign partners.
The USAID BIZPRO project is helping the tourism sector in the Crimea to improve stakeholders’ operations, establish new partnerships, increase sales, as well as to promote the Crimean brand and help tourism in Ukraine develop and grow. At the same time, BIZPRO is working with sector stakeholders to help them engage government to improve the investment climate. BIZPRO’s efforts in the tourism sector are part of its goal to increase Ukraine’s global competitiveness in targeted sectors of the economy.
Success with enterprise level initiatives has earned BIZPRO the sector’s confidence, which has propelled them to unite to tackle their common problems. For example, with BIZPRO’s guidance stakeholders rallied to advocate for the elimination of VAT for inbound tourism services and saved the industry $16 million in 2005. Currently, BIZPRO is helping the Crimean Ministry of Health Resorts and Tourism organize the Crimean Tourism Investment Forum. The forum is being designed to promote investment opportunities in Crimea to foreign investors and will be held in the fall of 2006.
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