Productive forces development and regional economy

Features and trends of the Chernobyl tourism development

Economic Annals-XXI

Economic Annals-ХХI: Volume 183, Issue 5-6, Pages: 134-141

Citation information:
Romanova, A. (2020). Features and trends of the Chernobyl tourism development. Economic Annals-XXI, 183(5-6), 134-141. doi: https://doi.org/10.21003/ea.V183-13

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Anna Romanova
D.Sc. (Economics),
Associate Professor of the Department of Regional Studies and Tourism,
Kyiv National Economic University named after Vadym Hetman;
CEO, The Association of Hospitality of Ukraine
54/1 Peremohy Ave., Kyiv, 03057, Ukraine
romanova.center@gmail.com
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7336-1032

Abstract. The author defines Chernobyl tourism as a visit to the exclusion zone, which was formed as a result of a large-scale technological disaster, i.e., an explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power station in 1986, for educational, scientific, business, recreational and other tourism purposes.

The complexity of Chernobyl tourism is proved and schematically presented. The main types of tourism which can be promoted in the Chernobyl Zone (ChZ) such as cultural, cinema, active, scientific, conference, dark, sentimental, adventure, extreme, industrial, business, event, diplomatic and ecotourism had been analyzed.

Four stages of the development of Chernobyl tourism are disclosed: 1) illegal visits to the exclusion zone (starting from the late 1980s); 2) official visits (starting from the late 1990s); 3) emergence of Chernobyl tourism companies (starting from the first decade of the 2000s); 4) mass tourism (starting from the second decade of the 2000s).

The statistics of visiting the ChZ for the last five years had been analyzed. The number of foreigners visiting ChZ was compared with the total number of foreigners visiting Ukraine. The results of the marketing research of the profile of 1000 random visitors to the ChZ, conducted in November 2019, are presented. The formula of the economic contribution of Chernobyl tourism to the development of the tourism sector of Ukraine and the national economy as a whole has been derived.

As a result of generalization of statistical data, as well as the results of marketing research, a number of features of Chernobyl tourism was formulated and analyzed: uniqueness of this tourism product; phasing of development; tours organization; availability of various types of tourism; dominance of foreign tourists; relatively high cost of the product; narrow segmentation of the product; purposefulness of the tours; the game, television and film industry influence; short trips duration; three-level self-organization of Chernobyl tourism; an increase in the number of illegal tourists; the lack of developed tourism infrastructure; the high interest of foreign investors; the lack of a systematic scientific and strategic approach.

The recommendations for authorities and representatives of Chernobyl tourism promotion companies were formulated to increase the economic contribution of this type of tourism.

Keywords: Dark Tourism; Thanatourism; Atomic Tourism; Nuclear Tourism; Chernobyl Tourism; Chernobyl Zone (ChZ)

JEL Classifications: F20; D47; F63; L83; Q01

Acknowledgements and Funding: The author received no direct funding for this research.

Contribution: The author contributed personally to this work.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21003/ea.V183-13

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Received 3.04.2020
Received in revised form 26.04.2020
Accepted 28.04.2020
Available online 4.06.2020
Updated version of the paper as of 20.09.2020

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