President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky spoke about the importance of intensive development of tourism between Ukraine and Turkey.
“It is very important that we, [Erdogan] and I are talking about special conditions for Ukrainian and Turkish tourists, citizens. We talked about the need to really increase the level of tourism for Ukrainians and Turkish citizens. This is very important. I think especially now we have to support each other,” Zelensky said following a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council on Thursday, April 15.
“Erdogan supports our independence, our sovereignty. You heard that Russia said it would restrict tourists or tourism from the Russian Federation to Turkey. It’s their business. And I think that, on the contrary, we need to increase and show that we support Turkey,” Zelensky said.
Also, according to Zelensky, during a meeting with Erdogan in Turkey on April 10, “a number of important documents were signed between Ukraine and Turkey, but support for Ukrainian sovereignty is much more important.”
“But the most important thing today, when we talk about the geopolitical issue, the issue of peace in Ukraine and the support of our partners, it is important that President Erdogan supports Ukraine, supports our temporarily occupied territories, supports Crimea. It is important that he supports our position: he does not recognize annexation of Crimea,” the head of state said.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine intends to terminate the agreement with the government of the Russian Federation on cooperation in the field of tourism.
The corresponding draft decision was published in the agenda of the government meeting on Wednesday.
This agreement was signed in Kyiv on July 16, 1999.
It is noted that this decision will be made due to the fact that due to Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine, actual cooperation in this area has been suspended, and there are no prospects for establishing such cooperation in the future.
The State Agency for Tourism Development of Ukraine, the State Agency of Automobile Roads of Ukraine (Ukravtodor) and representatives of investors in the Borzhava and Slavske resorts have signed a memorandum of cooperation in the development of the infrastructure of the Carpathians.
The memorandum, in particular, was signed by Head of the State Agency for Tourism Development Maryana Oleskiv, First Vice President of OKKO Group Vasyl Danyliak, co-owner of the Bukovel tourist complex Oleksandr Shevchenko, legal consultant of Borzhava Asset company Yuriy Chizhmar during the Ukraine 30. Infrastructure forum.
“Cooperation with the state is very important for us, since the infrastructure around the resort is very expensive, and it is practically impossible to implement it without state support. This concerns, first of all, roads, sewerage and water supply and, of course, electricity,” Danyliak said.
“We, as an investor in Bukovel, are ready to build almost the entire infrastructure for the Olympics-2030, together with partners to build facilities that will complement each other so that the Carpathians become a diverse and attractive region for tourists from all over the world,” Shevchenko added.
Chizhmar expressed hope that, according to environmental standards, the development of infrastructure in the region will increase its investment attractiveness.
The tourism industry of Ukraine in 2020 saw about UAH 60 billion damage due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“The demand is lower today and the damage to the market has been significant. If in the world the losses of the tourism industry amounted to about $ 800 billion, then in Ukraine, according to our calculations, about UAH 60 billion. This is the damage that the industry saw in 2020,” the head of the State Agency of Tourism Development in Ukraine, Maryana Oleskiv, said during a press conference on assessing the impact of COVID-19 on the hotel industry in Ukraine.
At the same time, she clarified that the agency plans to publish the detailed results of the industry in 2020 in early February.
At the same time, there is still no detailed statistical data on the tourism market and its participants in Ukraine, Oleskiv said.
“For the state agency, this will be one of the priorities in the next [2021] year. In the budget that we have, which is UAH 100 million, we plan to use a significant share of funding to create a unified tourism register, where all accommodation facilities and tourist activity subjects can register and receive operational statistics at least monthly,” the expert said.
The Verkhovna Rada intends to amend the Tax Code of Ukraine to support culture, tourism and creative industries.
Some 273 MPs voted in favor of bill No. 3851 at first reading.
According to an explanatory note to the bill, the document proposes to introduce tax mechanisms to provide state support to the spheres of culture, tourism and creative industries in order to prevent their stagnation, preserve and create new jobs.
The bill, in particular, proposes not to tax corporate profits, income of individuals, and a single income tax in the form of a cultural grant.
According to the bill, a cultural grant means “targeted assistance in the form of funds or property, which are provided on a free and irrevocable basis at the expense of the national and/or local budgets, international technical assistance for the implementation of a project or a program in the fields of culture, tourism and creative industries.
In addition, in terms of value added tax, it is proposed not to tax operations on import into the customs territory of Ukraine (import of goods) that are part of the national cinematic heritage.
It is also proposed not to tax certain operations for the supply of national films until January 1, 2025, and from January 1, 2023 to January 1, 2025, not to tax operations on the supply of services for the demonstration, distribution and screening of national films and foreign films that are dubbed, voiced in the state language on the territory of Ukraine, provided that such films are adapted, in accordance with the legislation, in the Ukrainian language version for persons with visual and hearing impairments.
BENEFITS, CREATIVE INDUSTRIES, CULTURE, SUPPORT, TAX, TOURISM
During his working visit to Spain, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba has discussed with Secretary General of the UN World Tourism Organization Zurab Pololikashvili the prospects for Ukraine’s interaction with the Organization, involving the organization’s mechanisms in the development of the tourism industry in Ukraine.
“They paid main attention to the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for the tourism industry, its adaptation to new realities. Kuleba noted that the pandemic has not only obvious negative consequences for tourism, but also unexpected new opportunities. In particular, in Ukraine, such circumstances gave impetus for domestic tourism, aroused people’s interest in traveling inside their own country,” the press service of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said on Friday morning.
Pololikashvili noted that now this trend is observed everywhere, and the organization sees in it new opportunities for the global development of domestic and rural tourism.
The head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine proposed to hold an international tourism forum of the World Tourism Organization in Ukraine, dedicated, in particular, to the topic of domestic and green tourism in the countries of the world.
“I have no doubt that Ukraine will become a new territory on the map of world tourism, which foreigners will be happy to discover for themselves as something new. The development of domestic tourism is a priority of President Volodymyr Zelensky and the government of Ukraine. I want us to join forces on the WTO to achieve this goals,” said the minister.
According to Kuleba, it is worthwhile, without waiting for the end of the pandemic, to actively seek new forms and methods of tourism development, given the importance of the tourism industry for the world economy.
The Minister invited the Secretary General of the UN World Tourism Organization to pay a visit to Ukraine.
