“When you leave home in the morning and come back in the evening, you don’t hear air alarms all day”

BUKY Bold cliffs and handsome rapids. A familiar landscape elsewhere, but not at all typical in central Ukraine. That’s why this region in the Cherkasy region is called Ukrainian Switzerland.

The Hirskyi Tikytš river flows through the Buky canyon. The name literally means a mountain stream, but there is an interesting connection even to Finland in the name.

– Originally, the name of the river was Uhorskyi Tikytš, i.e. the Ugrian stream, because Ugrian tribes lived here. Since then, the initial vowel fell out for some reason, says the local guide, Vasil-a young man who playfully calls himself a danger.

He guides groups of tourists in the canyon, which the tour operator Natalia Horbachova brings twice a month from Kiev, about 200 kilometers away.

The entire tourism industry was on hiatus for a couple of months due to the war, until inquiries about trips started coming in again in May, says Horbačova. He organizes day trips around Kyiv on weekends.

– Tourists come on my trips who have not been anywhere during the war. A lot of them work [sodassa] as volunteers, but they can’t take it forever, says Horbachova.

According to him, Ukrainians need trips to recharge their batteries and disconnect from everyday life.

– Now during the war, our trips are by no means pleasure trips, but a form of therapy. When you leave home in the morning and don’t come back until the evening, you don’t hear air alarms or follow the news all day, Horbachova says.

It was precisely these things that the person living in Kiev ran away from Victoria Kolosova. At the beginning of the war, she was in Lviv with her husband, but it didn’t seem right to visit the sights then.

– Only now, almost five months later, when everyday life in Kyiv is rolling again, the idea of ​​leaving the city came. And it was the right idea. In nature, the soul rests and gets in a good mood, says Kolosova.

Director of the Tourism Development Center of Ukraine Marjana Oleskiv says that Ukrainians now have a difficult moral dilemma: is it even ethical to go on vacation when the country is at war?

– We tell people that vacationing and resting is completely normal even during war. But we don’t recommend organizing parties or parties while traveling, because it’s hardly seen well, says Oleskiv.

The Tourism Development Center emphasizes that tourism is an important sector that helps the economy run in difficult times. According to various estimates, the tourism sector in Ukraine accounts for 3–7 percent of the gross domestic product. In addition, one job in the field creates four to ten jobs in other fields.

Oleskiv says that before the war, Ukrainians in their homeland traveled the most along the coast and in the mountains.

– Now vacations by the sea are not possible, because part of the coast is occupied and part is mined. At the moment, you can organize limited nature tours or guided cultural tours in the cities.

War conditions limit tourism in many ways. For example, you have to be careful about the day trip schedule because of the nighttime curfew.

– We only have small groups, because during the air raid warning, people have to be taken to a civilian shelter. In small villages, shelters can be quite cramped. We are not allowed to go deep into the forests or visit areas where battles have taken place, says trip organizer Natalia Horbačova.

The danger is real. On the same day that Horbachova’s group toured the western parts of the Cherkasy region, Russia launched a missile attack on a village in the eastern part of the region.

In addition to the canyon, during the day you can also visit the animal farm. At the farm called Golden Pheasant, you can pet and feed the animals. According to Horbatšova, that too is travel therapy.

He says that at the beginning of the war, his regular customers saved the animals of the Golden Pheasant. Due to the lack of ticket revenue, there was no money for food for the animals. Thanks to fundraising, the animals survived, and now visitors have started coming again.

– It is certainly nice to come here to spend time with the children. Animals help us forget for a moment the situation we live in, says Viktorija Kolosova.

He already has a post-war travel plan ready.

– I want to travel in Ukraine and get more information about its historical places or nature parks. I am Ukrainian, so I want to know Ukraine better.

According to Natalia Horbachova, the tourism industry already noticed after the annexation of Crimea in 2014 that interest in Ukraine and its history is rising domestically. He now sees a new wave of interest.

– We will certainly not run out of work. We now have to do everything we can to win, and after that we won’t be seen at home at all. We will be traveling all the time.

The Ukrainian Tourism Development Center is already planning post-war tourism. According to Marjana Oleskivi, the director of the center, foreign vacationers will go to Ukraine in the future, but the first to come to the country are people who have supported Ukraine in the war.

– We have to think about how we tell them about the heroism of our people. How do we tell the world that this should never happen again, says Oleskiv.

You can discuss the topic until Monday evening, July 25. until 11 p.m.