Rebranding Ukraine as a Tourist Destination
State Agency for Tourism Development of Ukraine together with the BRAND UKRAINE team held a strategic session involving stakeholders, dedicated to forming a new brand for Ukraine as a tourist destination.
Effective strategies are not formed in closed offices but are created in dialogue with those who have the best expertise in the field.
This meeting became a platform for creativity, team collaboration, analysis, and reflection: "how will Ukraine appear to the world in the coming years?" And what will be its tourist image after a period when the global narrative focused mainly on the topic of war.
Despite the challenges — security risks, damaged infrastructure, lack of investment, and market fragmentation — participants noted powerful potential: community activity, the development of local products, business investments, and regional stories that form the basis for a renewed narrative about Ukraine.
Within the framework of the strategic session, DART and Brand Ukraine signed a memorandum of cooperation. This document is about our shared vision, desire to improve, and readiness to jointly create a new tourist image of Ukraine in the world. We are combining our experience, analytics, and creativity to jointly build a coherent and recognizable brand.
Results are born where there is cooperation — between the state, business, the public sector, regions, experts, and everyone who works daily for the country they want to live in.
Together with Brand Ukraine, DART will work to:
- Form a unified language with which Ukraine will speak to the world about its tourism;
- Create narratives that will present our country as hospitable, multifaceted, and meaningful;
- Develop new products and communication tools that will amplify our voice on the international arena.
Brand Ukraine, thank you for the partnership! This memorandum is the start of a laborious, but very interesting, effective, and long-term collaboration.
"The session became the first stage of a great joint effort to create a single vision — how Ukraine will speak to the world about the tourism of the future, in conditions of sustainable peace — hospitable, meaningful, innovative, and humane," noted Natalia Tabaka, Head of DART.
"I am convinced: after the victory and the restoration of air travel, millions of tourists will fly to Ukraine. International data shows that if it weren't for the war, we would already be receiving over 7.6 million foreign travelers per year, as many as Sweden, Poland, or Hungary receive today. Interest in Ukraine is unprecedented, and we have all the prerequisites to become a new global tourist center. I am glad that work on Ukraine's tourism brand and its global promotion is already underway today. Sincere thanks to Natalia Tabaka and the DART team for their trust," Maria Lypiatska, Head of BRAND UKRAINE.
Within the strategic session Re:Brand Ukraine, DART, together with Brand Ukraine and the participants, held a brainstorm on the concept of a new project, "Regime of Silence. Paths of Restoration." Dozens of ideas, risk and threat analysis, unique features, creative solutions, and even a merchandise idea — all of this was successfully developed together.
We are grateful to our partners for their cooperation and to the Vil Vedmezha (Bear's Tower) castle-hotel for the cozy setting and the opportunity for such a meeting.
Ahead lies work on the brand strategy, formulation of solutions, and preparation for further stages of the rebranding.
