Travel to Ukraine

Ukraine is one of the largest countries in the South-Eastern Europe. Its overall area is 603.7 ths. sq. km, the population is about 50 million.

Ukraine borders on Russia, Byeloruss, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Moldova.

In the South Ukraine is washed by the Black and Azov Seas. The length of the Black Sea coastline within Ukraine is over 1500 km.

The climate of Ukraine is of moderate continental type with certain peculiarities in the Crimean mountains and the Carpathians, as well as in the southern coastline of Crimea, where it has features of subtropical one. The largest mountain system - Ukrainian Carpathians - lies in the form of a stripe, 270 km long and 100 - 110 km wide. The highest peak of Ukraine - Goverla Mountain (2061 m) - is situated in Chornogirya massif of Ukrainian Carpathians.

The riches of natural and historic-cultural potential of Ukraine is hardly to overestimate. Black and Azov Seas, Crimea, Carpathians, Dnipro River Side, Podillya and Volyn regions, over 70 ths. rivers run through the territory of Ukraine; the largest of those are Dnipro, Dnister, Pivdenny Bug, Siversky Donets and Danube are tourist-recreational resources of Ukraine.

Tourists have a possibility to get acquainted with the history and culture of Ukraine from very ancient to modern times. The most famous historical and cultural monuments are in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, as well as in cities: Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, Chernigiv, Kamyanets-Podilsky. A great number of archaeological monuments is concentrated in the southern part of Ukraine. Tourists may be interested in the excavations of ancient towns of the northern Black Sea Side - Tira, Olviya, Chersonese, Panticapea, as well as in archaeological museums in Odesa, Kerch and Kyiv.

More than 500 cities of Ukraine has their history of more than 900 years old, 4500 villages of Ukraine are more than 300 years old. Historical cities and villages are our national riches.

There are 150 ths. of monuments of culture, history, archaeology, citybuilding, architecture, palaces and park building art, as well as 300 museums in Ukraine. 7 national historical and cultural preserves have been created. More values are monuments of Kyivan Rus (IX - XII centuries) epoch - 80 % of monuments of this period are concentrated on the territory of Ukraine. The most remarkable monuments are the Kyyevo-Pecherska Lavra (Kyivan Cave Monastery), the St. Sophia's Cathedral and the historical center of Lviv city. They have been entered into the List of the World Heritage of UNESCO. Very rich historical and cultural heritage is represented by St.Andrew`s and St.Cyryl`s Churche in Kyiv, historical monuments, related to the historical and cultural heritage of Zaporizhzhya Cossacks, as well as those from the days of the national liberation struggle of Ukrainian people in 1648 - 1654, and the World War II; architectural and house-holding museums under open sky in Kyiv, Pereyaslav-Khmelnytsky, Lviv, Uzhgorod, Chernivtsi, Galych, art galleries in Kyiv, Odesa, Feodosiya, Lviv, Kharkiv etc. Tourists are very interested in architectural monuments of various epochs and styles: monuments of defensive architecture - fortresses in Lutsk, Medzhybizh, Kamyanets-Podilsky, Khotyn, Bilgorod-Dnistrovsky, Uzhgorod, Mukacheve; palace complexes in Crimea, in Lviv and Chernigiv regions; monuments of wooden worship and civil architecture in the Carpathians.

The statistical data show that in 2001 Ukraine has visited 5,8 million foreign tourists (the growth in comparison with the year 2000 is 31 %), 9,4 million Ukrainian tourists travelled abroad, 7,5 million domestic tourists travelled within the country and 18,5 million people went on excursions around Ukraine (the growth on this figures in comparison with the year 2000 is 8 - 10 %).

By the calculation of the World Tourism Organization recommendations the volumes of consumption of goods and services of tourist and other branches of economy, that is provided by domestic and international tourist flows in 2001 averaged 22 billion grivnas (about 4 billion US dollars). At the same time due to the incoming tourism, it is sold tourist and satellite services and goods for 14,3 billion grivnas (2,7 billion US dollars).

Ukraine develops the international tourist cooperation. On October, 1997 Ukraine became the Full Member of the World Tourism Organization (WTO), and on September, 1999 at the 13-th session of the WTO General Assembly in Chile Ukraine became the Member of the WTO Executive Council.