Tourism booming as more people travel abroad

The disposable incomes of Ukrainians are growing and so is their interest in travel and tourism. The Travel agencies and tour operators in the Ukrainian have experienced a boom both outbound and inbound tourism.

The tourist industry does have some major problems with the low quality of service, deliberate price dumping, an unsatisfactory legislative environment and lack of support from the government.

Tourism to Ukraine is growing at a much slower rate than the number of Ukrainian tourists travelling abroad. Most tourists travelling to Ukraine come from adjoining countries, namely Russia, Belarus and Moldova. Russia alone accounts for around 34 percent of all visitors to Ukraine.

Market players attribute to the low rate of inbound tourism to not enough legislation aimed at developing the industry, the comparatively low quality of services, weak infrastructure, and they lack really good hotels and means of transportation.

Ukraine’s State Statistics Committee stated that some 18.9 million tourists visited Ukraine in 2006 – over 1 million more than the 17.6 million counted in 2005. Around 35 percent of inbound tourists come from EU member states

The Demand for business travel is growing as well at a rate of 17 percent annually and demand for tourism in general is growing by 25 percent every year.

There are estimated 3,000 travel agencies and tourist operators currently offering their services in Ukraine, with the absolute majority located in Kyiv.

So all Ukraine just need to get a better infrastructure in place and they will have more inbound tourists.