Ukrainian hotels since the beginning of the war in many cities serve as hubs to accommodate refugees, cook hot lunches and provide outside catering during evacuation from different war inflamed areas for Ukrainian defenders and volunteers. The hotels also provide storage space for humanitarian assistance, Red Cross aid and other activities aimed to support suffering civilians. Recently the Ukrainian hotels launched an action “Visit Ukraine In the Future”, aimed to support Ukrainian hospitality industry, that takes part in providing rear support for the military actions and carrying significant financial expenses since the war began.

The State Agency for Tourism Development and the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy had officially supported the action initiated by the Ukrainian Hotel and Resort Association (UHRA) on behalf of the hospitality industry’s community.

People from all over the world who care about supporting Ukraine, its economy, and hospitality industry can make “donated booking” of rooms at Ukrainian hotels for any date throughout the year of 2022. Hospitality industry representatives specify that they would welcome guests visiting Ukraine right after Ukraine’s victory. “Tourism industry, similar to any other sphere - suffer from war quite significantly. Whereas, in Kyiv for example some hotels provide support to the territorial defense, military personnel, cook and deliver food to defenders. In the temporarily occupied cities any activities have almost been suspended, and the hotels still use opportunities if any to help the local population” - told Ms. Mariana Oleskiv, head of the State Agency for Tourism Development. “We have a lot of inquiries from colleagues from all over the world, and we see great willingness of the world community to support Ukraine in general, and its tourism sphere in particular. And therefore, we’ve got such an idea jointly with the professional Association to provide an option right away to book future trips to Ukraine. It would let people support the tourism industry.

After our victory they would visit and see our cities, our people, whose courage is currently respected by the whole world.” - added Ms. Oleskiv. “Beginning the very first day of the initiative, it was already supported by dozens of hospitality entities. Such hotels list is updated regularly at the Ukrainian Hotel and Resort Association. A “donated booking” can be done via these hotels’ websites. A donation amount depends on the number of nights you wish to pay by a credit card, and the amounts start from 40-50 Eur per night independently of a booking season”. - says Ms. Irina Sidletska, President of Ukrainian Hotel and Resort Association (UHRA). She added that the Association receives multiple inquiries from colleagues of foreign hotel associations - HOTREC members, that are willing to support the hospitality industry and Ukrainians, who suffer from the actions of the neighboring country-aggressor.

“This action is a simple way to support hotels, that during a period of forced downtime take part in supporting the rear. Foremost, in the active military fighting areas, hotels serve as an important link in temporary accommodation of evacuated civilians, meals cooking, humanitarian aid points organizing and household services. And it means expenses not obvious from the first glance, such as hotel staff work payment, food procurement, security etc.” - the Association representatives said. “This is a direct and efficient way of support for hospitality entities, when there’s an opportunity to book and prepay any number of nights for any period throughout the year of 2022 in a hotel, which you selected to support. The obtained payment would allow hotels to work in the mode of providing support to the military rear, and in the future when this nightmare ends to welcome its donors”, - stated the head of the Ukrainian Hotel and Resort Association (UHRA).

On March 5th Bloomberg agency reported that Airbnb renting service received bookings for almost US$ 2m in Ukraine from people, who are not accommodated in the booked rooms, while just wanting to provide financial support for Ukrainians suffering from war. According to the general director of Airbnb Brian Chesky, there were about 61 thousand nights booked in Ukraine by March 2nd - 3rd. Almost three quarters of the bookers were from the US, UK, and Canada.