The Servant of the People party announced the updated draft law on tourism

The Servant of the People party announced the updated draft law on tourism.

The party's press service reports.

"More transparent, more efficient, with sufficient funding on the ground and due attention from the state. Ukrainian tourism will work according to new rules. The Ministry of Culture and Information Policy together with the State Agency for Tourism Development of Ukraine and the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy presented an updated draft law on tourism," the message states.

What does it imply?

✅ Creation of a unified tourist register. It will be an electronic database of tour operators, travel agents, hotels, hostels, and tourist support specialists. It will help to get up-to-date statistics, which effective management of the industry is impossible without. And it also automates the interaction of tourism and the state.

✅ Safety of tourists. It introduces mandatory insurance for the return of our tourists to Ukraine and payment for their accommodation and meals during the forced stay abroad.

✅ Additional funding on the ground. It will create targeted local tourism funds. The fund money will be used for developing local tourism.

✅ Hotels will receive their categories, i.e. the number of "stars", according to new criteria, similar to world standards.

✅ De-shadowing and setting standards for the tourism industry.

During the presentation, Deputy Head of the Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy and Deputy Head of the Servant of the People party, Yevheniia Kravchuk, also reminded what the state has already done for the development of Ukrainian tourism.

In particular, it includes the active road construction on major tourist routes according to the Great Construction program; changes in the work of Ukrzaliznytsia making railway travel in Ukraine more convenient; made-up plans of the Great Restoration of over 100 cultural objects; a draft law to reduce "cultural" VAT from 20% to 7% and an updated law on tourism.

"The tourism industry has been waiting for adopting this law for at least 10 years. We will consider it in the committee soon, and we would very much like us to vote on it in the first reading at this session. As for our strategic task, we must make tourism а full-scale economic realm, but not a subsidized one. In countries where they stake on it, tourism brings up to 10% of GDP. We want all travel in our country to bring profits to private business and the Ukrainian economy," said Yevheniia Kravchuk.