In the program on Channel 5 on Tuesday, Mykola Tomenko, Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, declared that the state policy in the sphere of tourism is not only inadequate, but also wrong.
The Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine declared, "If work of the authorities in this direction can be called policy, one may also call it tourism." He focused on the fact that the global trend concerns formation of attractive facilities for mass tourism and ordinary citizens, not VIP-tourists. "The approach should dramatically change", he added.
M. Tomenko called for building more high-quality three-star hotels and developing low-end infrastructure. "First of all, we should build modern roads and develop transport infrastructure rather than construct helicopter platforms and VIP-terminals", the politician believes. Moreover, M. Tomenko stressed that the state funds shall not be invested into extremely expensive television advertising abroad, "as we should start from making route markers and help desks in the Ukrainian cities." M. Tomenko is convinced that attraction of investments as an alternative to the inefficient budget funding deserves special attention.
M. Tomenko considers it inappropriate that the authorities are focusing on preparation of tourist infrastructure to Euro-2012 only. "Average Euro-2012 visitors are so-called beer-football-tourists who can not be attracted by museum exhibitions, castles or beauty of parks", Mykola Tomenko admitted.
As an example of effective public tourism advertising without state support, Mykola Tomenko named the campaign "Seven Wonders of Ukraine" which has been held since 2007. He reminded that the third stage of the campaign "Seven Wonders of Ukraine: Castles, Palaces and Fortresses" is being held. Its purpose is to create a special map of castles and palaces in Ukraine to make the state and local authorities support them, as well as to attract private business.