Resort hotels in the south of Ukraine early finished the summer tourist season in 2019 at once after holidays on the Independence Day, which is several weeks earlier than in 2018, Director General of Ribas Hotels Group Managing Company Artur Lupashko has told Interfax-Ukraine.
“This year, resort hotels closed the season early. It ended after the weekend, when was the Independence Day, since the hotels in the south were almost completely empty as early as August 26. Nobody believes in September. Many teams are simply tired and decided not to take risks, although last year we “held on” until September 14-16. We counted on the weekends and gained. Odesa residents finally decided to relax by the sea for the weekends. Therefore, we had full occupancy in the first two weeks of September at the weekends,” he said.
According to preliminary data, this year, the occupancy rate in the hotels of the Ribas Hotels Group increased by an average of 5%. The highest occupancy was observed in August (91%), followed by July (81%), and the lowest rate was seen in June (46%).
“The results of the summer tourist season of 2019 were influenced by many factors. This is cool weather in the beginning of summer, then fluctuations in high temperatures, algae blooms in the sea, elections and much more. We would say that before the election, guests carefully planned their holidays,” Lupashko said.
According to him, about 60% of guests booked rooms a week before arrival, about 15% – two weeks, and only 5% – a month before the planned date of rest.
“People began to save on everything during their holidays. According to the tourist portal Booking.com, 60% of users use the room price slider as the first filter. The most popular price range for guests on the Ukrainian coast is from UAH 500 to UAH 1,500 per night for a room,” Lupashko said, adding that while doing this, guests take into account what is included in this price: breakfast, lunch, spa treatments, and other things.
In this regard, the Ribas Hotels Group is considering a proposal to remove services such as breakfast, extra cleaning, SPA treatments for guests of resort hotels. Thus, the average guest check will be significantly reduced and will correspond to the budget of the guest for the trip.
Ribas Hotels Group provides integrated management services, exclusive booking, franchising and design.
The total number of rooms in the network as of July 2019 was 1,424 rooms.
Ribas Hotels Group LLC (Odesa) was established in 2017.
According to the unified public register, Lupashko is the head and owner of a 100% stake in the charter capital of the company.
The White House on Wednesday, September 25, posted the transcript of a conversation between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that took place on July 25, 2019.
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden’s name appears several times in the text of the document. At the same time, the document indicates that the document was compiled based on notes taken by White House employees who were present in Trump’s office during the conversation.
The Trump-Zelensky conversation has received a much attention in American media.
Posco International Corporation Korea-based Company and Ukrainian Orexim Group have officially opened a grain terminal with a total storage capacity of over 140,000 tonnes in Mykolaiv seaport.
As Orexim reported on its website, the grain terminal was built on the base of Mykolaiv Milling Works.
“By the start of work of the new grain terminal Posco plans to increase Ukrainian grain export to 3 million per year. Also, the company has in plans to create their own park of rail wagons for grain transporting,” said the Group.
As reported, in February 2019, Posco Corporation announced that it has signed an agreement with the Orexim Group from Ukraine on the acquisition of 75% of shares in the grain export terminal being built at the Mykolaiv maritime merchandise port.
Orexim Group started its activity in 2004 as a small trading company having transformed over several years of continuing successful activity into a market leader with around 1,000 employees. The group incorporates over 20 enterprises.
The core business is exports of agricultural products, port and logistics services. The company has invested over $100 million in fixed assets.
In August 2016, the group finalized a deal to acquire Mykolaiv Grain Terminal.
In February 2018, the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) is providing EUR 31 million to Orexim Group to reconstruct and modernize private joint-stock company Mykolaiv Grain Terminal.
The first batch of influenza vaccines produced by Sanofi Pasteur (France) and Green Cross Corporation (Korea) in the amount of 103,55 dosages were delivered to Ukraine, the press service of the Public Health Center of Ukraine reported on Facebook.
According to the report, vaccines are currently at the stage of quality and safety control.
The approximate deadline for state quality control is October 1, 2019, after which the vaccines will be sold.
In general, Ukraine is to accept 500,000 of dosages of vaccines for influenza immunoprophylaxis.
GREEN CROSS CORPORATION, INFLUENZA, SANOFI PASTEUR, VACCINES
PJSC Ukrzaliznytsia in September 2019 has launched three new container trains for grain transportation running on a fixed schedule from Chornomorsk-Port station (Odesa region) to Balin station (Khmelnytsky region), and from Hnivan station (Vinnytsia region) to Starokostyantynivka station (Khmelnytsky region).
This follows from the report of Ukrzaliznytsia press service as quoting company’s head Yevhen Kravtsov as saying on September 24.
The railway operator has already put 27 container trains, of which 22 are regular ones.
“Now Ukrzaliznytsia operates about 150 grain containers used to transport grain cargo from elevators to seaports. The design of these containers allows to unload grain directly onto the vessel, which significantly speeds up the transportation process, and, therefore, reduces its cost,” the press service quotes Kravtsov.
According to him, in general, from the beginning of 2019, 248,280 containers (TEU) were transported, which is 10% more than over the same period in 2018.
Besides, Kravtsov said that since the beginning of 2019, the company launched extra ten container trains, of which four are international ones.
“Such service allows reducing the turnover of rolling stock more than three times and, as a result, helps to reduce the final cost of cargo transportation by 25%,” Ukrzaliznytsia head said.
Digital Transformation Ministry of Ukraine is going to examine a real Internet coverage of entire Ukraine and to create a respective online map, Deputy Premier and Digital Transformation Minister of Ukraine Mykhailo Fedorov reported.
“One of the ministry’s aims is within three years to provide all settlements, without exception, and their social facilities with high-speed Internet access … But a problem arose. As in all areas, so far there is no accurate and relevant analytical information in this direction in our country: what exact penetration of the Internet is now, what methodology studies this issue, what are solutions of this issue, what is the real network speed in each region/village/house,” he wrote on Facebook on Tuesday.
According to him, damage to the state from lack of information in this industry can be measured in billions. “Once money was already allocated for connecting schools to the network. As a result, tenders were won in the establishments, where ten operators have been working already. The price is also suspiciously high. Probably, a feature of the local market,” he said.
Fedorov reported that on September 24, the ministry’s team signed a memorandum with interested parties (associations, international business, the regulator, relevant deputies) who are ready to help in creating a real map of the country’s coverage with the Internet.
The deputy prime minister noted that during the meeting the parties determined the format of communication, as well as those responsible. A methodology for studying the problem is already being prepared.
“A valuable final product is an online map with real network coverage, the ability to see the situation right up to the village. Of course, with the ability to give feedback, does the speed correspond to the results of the study or not,” he said.
As reported, according to Fedorov, the introduction of 5G communications in Ukraine today is unrealistic and impractical. The initial goal of the ministry is to complete the introduction of 3G and 4G in the next year or two and provide social infrastructure and all settlements of the country with Internet within next three years.
