The source of the tourism industry breakthrough, its main attribute in the future and the challenges of today were discussed during the “Context Talks: Tourism of the Future” by experts Eduard Maltsev, Head of Presidents’ MBA kmbs, Artem Prykhodko, General Manager of InterContinental Kyiv, Mariana Oleskiv, head of State Agency for Tourism Development, Viktor Voitsekhovskyi, Commercial Director of Tickets UA, and Yaroslav Yemelianenko, founder of Chornobyl Tour.

 The discussion revolved around the trends of the tourism industry, which were described by Eduard Maltsev, head of Presidents’ MBA kmbs, namely:

1. Tourists’ fear to travel. According to the Booking.com survey, 46% of tourists are afraid to travel due to contact with the virus on public transport, 53% do not feel safe when traveling until they receive the vaccine. This affects the behavior of market players. For example, Emirates has set a payment of $122 to clients who get diagnosed with COVID-19 while traveling.
2. Changing travel formats. Domestic tourism is developing considerably. Solo travels have doubled in growth: the number of tourists traveling alone has increased from 17% in November 2019 to 30% in July 2020.
3. Digitalization of the tourism industry. Customer experience management with chatbots, cashless transactions, etc.
4. Combining work, study and leisure – workations. 53% of tourists prefer trips that they can afford in the short term.

Experts believe that the complexity of the situation should be considered because of the potential. “Today, the tourism industry is in a zone of turbulence, without the ability to clearly plan. Therefore, we approached the development of the state target program Travel Ukraine, which aims to focus on the development of pilot regions, the creation of special tourist zones, where there will be preferential taxation, attractive conditions for investment,” says Mariana Oleskiv, head of the State Agency for Tourism Development.

Yaroslav Yemelianenko also supports the development of domestic tourism. According to him, now we need to pay attention to industrial tourism. Regions with closed enterprises, abandoned heavy industry shops should become interesting for tourists. Tourists are always interested in the opportunity to see something unusual. However, the issue of industrial tourism has not been resolved: many bans on visiting are in force in such areas. “I see great interest from foreign tourists. But we do not have basic indicators in different languages, infrastructure,” says Yaroslav, founder of Chornobyl Tour.

Artem Prykhodko, General Manager of Intercontinental Kyiv, agrees with him, “Currently we have a trend – individual travel. Guests are interested in booking a car, tour, guide. Everything must happen individually using different languages. Therefore, tourists need adaptive information. We really see the future of individualization in everything. In the hotel industry, we move away from the classic scheme of booking a room depending on the class: ordinary, superior, suite. We offer a range of services: bed, view from the window, balcony. Based on these requests, the system will select the room.”

And in order to be able to individualize the solution not only within the hotel but also in the country, the expert considers it necessary for business to operate transparently, the infrastructure needs to meet the tourists’ expectations in order for Ukraine to be promoted as a tourist country. In order to meet the requirements of the time, it needs to be digitized.

Viktor Voitsekhovskyi, commercial director of Tickets UA, explains, “People are used to living fast. So, to be in the market and create your own product, you have to do it fast. Customers are becoming picky. The world is becoming digital. Digital diffusion is just crazy. Time becomes more valuable. Reducing the response time to a customer’s request by 1.5 seconds increases sales by 10%.”

Before, the price was the main driver, but today it’s convenience, reliability and service. They compete with the price. Technological solutions are becoming simpler for users, but at the same time significantly more complex in terms of creation.

Under these conditions, a breakthrough for the domestic tourism industry is seen in building trust between business and the state, constant dialogue and the invention of meaningful solutions.