Source – Vinnytsia City Council
On July 23, the first meeting of a task team responsible for the development of a Vinnytsia Tourism Development Strategy took place in Vinnytsia. Vinnytsia is well-placed to secure its status of a tourist centre in Podil region and to become a part of national tourism product. The plan for development of this sector for the upcoming ten years shall be elaborated within six months.
The Vinnytsia Tourism Development Strategy 2030 will be developed with support from PLEDDG Project. The first meeting of the task team brought together about 70 representatives of the tourism industry as well as local residents.
“This is the first meeting dedicated to the upcoming Vinnytsia Tourism Development Strategy held by the task team. It is a kick-off meeting to which we have welcomed everyone working in the tourism industry. We have to put in a lot of effort in six months, as we must develop a plan of strategic actions for the next 10 years. We must come up with a mission and vision, i.e. where we move to and how we see both Vinnytsia and the region in general terms in the framework of tourism development plan. It is essential to team up and cooperate with everyone working in this sector. At the initiative of Mayor Serhii Morhunov, we have created the municipal marketing and tourism department which has been active since the beginning of the year, and, presently, we have developed a range of projects that have launched, for instance, “Vinnytsia Guide””, – Halyna Malets, Director of Marketing and Tourism Department, says.
The task team is chaired by Deputy Mayor Vladyslav Skalsky. He said that over the previous period the amount of the tourist tax paid had increased threefold and that it was expected to grow up to 1 million UAH till the end of the season.
For over this incomplete year, the city has taken part in more than ten tourism events, particularly, in UITT International Travel and Tourism Exhibition, where Vinnytsia’s stand made the top three best Ukrainian regions and cities.
The brand “Vinnytsia is a City of Ideas”, developed by Fedoriv Agency, is put into action. At the same time, the “Visit Vinnytsia” pages and the Vinnytsia.city travel website have been launched on social media.
We should discuss what authorities, businesses, and community should do for Vinnytsia to become a genuinely tourist centre. In the last few months we have accumulated tourism potential, and this job is easy-to-see. Apart from our most renowned places such as Vinnytsia Fountain, Pyrohov Estate, Werwolf Headquarter, the city is being enriched both with new attention grabbers and extended itineraries. We move away from the “one-day city” image. We are making a high quality tourism product. Together, we should develop a strategic document which will ensure the conditions required specifically for this sector. The marketing strategy created together with our long-standing partner PLEDDG has become a strong contribution to our city development. I really hope for further fruitful cooperation in future”, – Vladyslav Skalsky, Deputy Mayor, said.
Ihor Lepyoshkin, Senior Expert, Head of Experts Group, believes that Vinnytsia has all conditions necessary for tourism development.
“Vinnytsia is one of the cities having just about the largest number of the initiatives supported by our Project. The city is always eager to do something. Vinnytsia has both resources and opportunities to develop tourism. Our task is to build the right policy for supporting development of tourism sector. A tourism product should go beyond the city boundary and spread out through the region. Tourism means impressions, and we must create them, – people will go to find their stories. They have been already made partially, but it is not enough. Vinnytsia has all opportunities to do this”, – Ihor Lepyoshkin said.