Representatives of the tourism industry are being trained in Transcarpathia

Yesterday, the two-day training "Building a network of cross-border tourism "Carpathian tourist path."Simulation of tourism development in Transcarpathia" started in Uzhgorod. The training was organized by the Transcarpathian Regional Council utility "Agency of Regional Development and Cross-border Co-operation "Transcarpathia". The training is carried out for tourism industry businesses of the region, development agencies, local authorities to determine the mechanism for implementing cross-border tourism network.

Expert of the "Carpathian tourist path 2" project Oleksandr Koval reported on the prospects of tourism development in the cross-border region of Ukraine, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia. The expert believes that Transcarpathia should develop a strategy for the development of the industry for several years. "We need the plan for 5 years. We need planning, but the issue of adequate infrastructure remains a priority. Without roads, we can not attract tourists to Transcarpathia. We need to compete and need to know how we can compete. We have a good example – the city of Lviv, which has already "taken" our potential tourists and has been relying on the tourism industry for years," – the expert said.

The Director of the Center of Ukrainian-Hungarian Regional Development Yosyp Torpoyi shared the Hungarian experience of introduction of a mechanism to coordinate and develop tourism. He said that our neighbors have a minimum of red tape, and the industry is co-funded by the national budget and EU funds. He also said that in Transcarpathia, they had also tried to introduce the Hungarian model of the tourism industry, created a system of tourist information centers. In Beregovo, they recently established a tourist board including 7 commissions.

Expert from Slovakia Mikula Patrick shared the experience of coordinating tourism development in Kosice region. There, at the city level, they create tourism clusters. Although they have been working for a relatively short time, the effect of their activities is significant. "In 2013 alone, the city of Košice received more than 300 thousand tourists. Only one third of them are foreigners. Last year, Košice was the European Capital of Culture and it brought to us even more tourists. Thanks to cheap air carriers operating in the city, tourists from the EU country can fly to us for just 20 euros. Each region specializes in tourism – wine regions, regions focused on the winter tourism, spa tourism is developing," – Mikula Patrick said.

Tomorrow, the training will continue. They will present innovative approaches to service for visitors of museums and information hot spots.