This month, the Lviv Tourist Office represented Lviv at the world’s leading exhibition World Travel Market (WTM London). In total, more than 35,800 tourism professionals took part in the exhibition.
The Lviv team met with colleagues from Croatia, Georgia, Bosnia and Herzegovina – countries that were rebuilding the tourism sector after the war. We received a lot of understanding and advice. For example, about the importance of documenting stories, forming a base for museums and other forms of telling our history, as future tourists will be in great demand for this.
“Lviv’s participation in WTM London this year is important, because it is a way to convey to colleagues from the industry that we exist, we are working and we are already thinking about restoring tourism after the victory. An important task was to tell how a tourist city lives when there is a war in the country, to find partners who are interested and can support Ukraine now, to develop a connection for future cooperation. Over time, we will share unique experiences in response to crises and changes after the pandemic and with the advent of war. We are grateful to the exhibition organizers and partners for the free space and accessories for the stand,” says Khrystyna Lebed, head of the city’s tourism department.
Lviv should be ready to resume tourism as soon as Ukraine wins. The Lviv Tourist Office is working on cooperation agreements, in particular with:
– journalists from travel international media, such as Traveler UK, National Geographic, Goldbach;
– Ukrainians who work in the tourism sector and have moved to Great Britain;
– Polish tour operators on the restoration of tourist flows to Lviv and Ukraine;
– tourist companies interested in organizing mountain hikes after the victory of Ukraine;
– interested in supporting UNBROKEN and Save Ukrainian Heritage projects by Skeiron.
According to the tourist office, the Ukrainian stand enjoyed a lot of attention among the participants of the exhibition – tourism business, media. Among the visitors were many Ukrainians who were forced to leave Ukraine due to the Russian invasion and are temporarily living in Great Britain.
“In its simplicity, this is the most powerful stand at the entire exhibition”, – this is how Euronews Travel reporter Julia Carbonaro described the Ukrainian stand at the exhibition.