Ukrainians are changing their holiday destinations: what they are choosing
Kyiv • UNN
Despite the war, Ukrainians continue to travel. The most popular holiday destinations in Ukraine are western resorts, and abroad - Bulgaria, Greece and Egypt.
Despite the war, which has been going on for the fourth year, Ukrainians continue to travel both in their native country and abroad. Ukrainian experts in the field of tourism told UNN about the most popular destinations for recreation in the spring and summer period and what has changed in the preferences of Ukrainians over the past year.
Vacation in Ukraine
Volodymyr Tsaruk, director of the Center for Tourism Development, said that the vast majority of Ukrainians are currently waiting for summer to plan vacations, the peak season falls at the end of June and the beginning of July.
Previously, peak dates for spring holidays fell on May holidays. Now the high season mostly starts when children finish school. Sometime from July
Tsaruk also added that a significant part of Ukrainians prefers a short "weekend" vacation in order to change the environment and recharge a little. Resorts in western Ukraine are increasingly chosen for such tours. Two important reasons for this are the shorter road and a more attractive price compared to vacationing abroad.
Currently, the trend among requests is options for recreation with rehabilitation and relaxation, in particular, within Ukraine, people choose sanatoriums and recreation centers in Yaremche and Bukovel. About 50% of tours in Ukraine fall on these two resorts
According to Tsaruk, Lviv and the region, in particular Truskavets, Morshyn, and Skhidnytsia, also remain popular. The director of the Center for Tourism Development noted that many new hotels are being built there, which offer Ukrainians attractive offers in terms of price and range of services, which often include a SPA complex and wellness procedures.
"If we compare prices with pre-war prices, they have significantly decreased. The difference reaches 20-30%. Currently, due to the increase in the cost of electricity and the increase in taxes, prices are leveling off (catching up with pre-war prices), but three- and four-star hotels offer many discounts and various offers, so the cost of such a vacation remains quite democratic," he emphasized.
Vacation abroad
If before the war Ukrainians most often chose to vacation in Turkey due to the price-quality ratio, now the focus has shifted towards Bulgaria and Greece. The reason for this change was logistics. Among other popular destinations among Ukrainians, Montenegro, Spain and Egypt can be distinguished.
In particular, in Bulgaria there are many resorts near the sea, which can be reached relatively quickly by bus, and not go to the nearest airport to fly to Turkey
Tourism expert Yelyzaveta Konovalova notes that another reason why vacationing in Turkey has lost its previous popularity is that Ukrainians do not want to encounter Russians in hotels, who also often choose this tourist destination.
If we talk about the latest trends, then Greece has become more popular than Turkey compared to last season. Now clients very often ask about Greece. Many of them do not want to consider Turkey because of unwanted meetings with "neighbors"
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She added that another change in travel planning is that Ukrainians have more often started choosing Egypt, which was popular before, for summer vacations.
"There have been a lot of requests for tours to Egypt in the summer, although this is more of an autumn-spring destination, other destinations are more popular in the summer, this surprised me this season," the expert noted.
At the same time, the geography of offers and requests of Ukrainians has expanded due to the fact that Ukrainians have to travel to large European cities to the nearest airport, which release and receive much more international connections than Ukrainian airports before the war.
Ukrainians have to go to Warsaw, Chisinau or Budapest to the nearest airport. From these airports there are more destination options that, for example, were not available by direct connection from Kyiv
In particular, precisely because of the war, atypical countries of departure for tourists appear more often.
What Ukrainians pay attention to when choosing hotels for vacation
Tsaruk noted that hotels with SPA and swimming pools are currently in great demand. Especially in the spring.
"Even the smallest hotels in western Ukraine have already built their swimming pools due to the popularity of such requests," he emphasized and added that the main request of Ukrainians now is "just to be in silence, without alarms, explosions and shelling. To relax mentally."
Is early booking relevant
The director of the Center for Tourism Development noted that, in his opinion, early booking is not very relevant now.
"There are still those who plan their vacations in advance, but the number of Ukrainians who buy tours 2-3 weeks before departure has also increased, because they don't know what will happen tomorrow," he explained.
However, Yelyzaveta Konovalova noted that early booking, on the contrary, is gaining momentum compared to what it was a few years ago, at the beginning of the war.
"Now this trend is gaining more and more momentum compared to previous years. Now it's only the beginning of April and we haven't entered the summer season yet, but many hotels are already fully booked," she said.
The expert explained this by the fact that tour operators offer more loyal conditions when buying a tour in advance and people have already learned that in the high summer season there are few "hot tours", the best offers end quickly.
