Radova, who is originally from Donetsk, has been in Kyiv for 15 years and now heads the city state administration’s tourism and promotion department. Since the 2014 Ukrainian revolution and prior to the war, foreign visitation to the country’s capital had increased to around a million a year.
“We’re trying to survive at the moment,” Radova told TTG@WTM. “But we are strong. Our people, our mayor and our city, we are united.
"We were the first city to face this aggression – they said they could take Kyiv in three days. The best support [after the war] would be to come to Kyiv and visit our country. We will be ready for tourism and tourists.”
Radova said the city’s mantra, “everything starts in Kyiv”, was undimmed by the conflict, it being the centre of the country’s visitor economy and primary entry point for most tourists.
Key pillars of visitation include medical, gastronomic and historical tourism, and increasingly Mice. Radova said that after Covid, ITB – and now WTM – had reinforced the value of doing business face-to-face, something she believes Kyiv can tap into.
The city, said Radova, is hopeful of rebuilding its reputation as an international hub, as well as a city break destination with its range of three- to five-star accommodation.
New guided tours, as well as new routes taking in other cities and attractions like Odesa, Lviv and the Carpathian mountains, as well as war-torn cities like Kharkiv, would be at the forefront of the country’s tourism offering.
Focuses for medical tourism include dermatology, dentistry and reproductivity, while gastronomic highlights include Kyiv pie and Ukrainian borscht (beetroot broth) culture, which is now inscribed on Unesco’s endangered heritage list.
Radova added her department was already tracking an uptick in interest from overseas visitors keen to travel to Kyiv after the war, and stressed tourism would be important to the city’s future. “We are strong characters,” she said. “We will make people feel as comfortable as before the war.”
