On the territory of Ivano-Frankivsk region, a training workshop for guides and local tourism operators “Creating products for responsible tourism development and cooperation with the Center for Heritage of Vigodsky narrow-gauge railway” was held on December 17-18, 2015. Participation in the meeting was attended by representatives of green farmsteads, travel companies, museums, tour guides and other participants of the tourist business of the Dolinsky district of the Ivano-Frankivsk region.
The meeting was organized within the framework of the project “Carpathian narrow-gauge railway”, carried out by the Travel Association of Ivano-Frankivsk region in partnership with Vygodsky settlement council of Ivano-Frankivsk oblast, Ivano-Frankivsk oblast state administration (Ukraine) and Maramure mountain natural park (Romania) with the financial support of the European Union within the framework of the Hungary-Slovakia-Romania-Ukraine Cross-Border Cooperation Program 2007-2013.
The seminar was of a purely practical nature – its program was 80% consisted of study visits to tourist sites (successful attractions) of the Carpathian region. First of all, the participants of the seminar visited the Vygis’kyj narrow-gauge heritage center, created within the framework of the project as a tourist-cognitive object for preservation of the historical and technological heritage of narrow-gauge railways, got acquainted with the organization of work, features of management and services of the Center.
In order to exchange experience, direct business contacts for future cooperation and business expansion, the participants of the meeting visited the park “Karpaty in miniature” in Yaremche, which became a new high-quality tourist attraction, where objects of natural and architectural heritage of the Ukrainian Carpathians are presented in the reduced form. , in particular unique churches and monuments of Hutsul architecture, Mount Hoverla, stone bridges, railway tunnel and many other interesting exhibits. Representatives of the tourist business also visited the freehold of the Carpathian National Nature Park, whose feature is the maintenance of local wild animals in semi-free-living conditions, and a mini brewery in Mykulychyn, where they learned new features of doing business like that. The participants of the seminar presented two unique recreation facilities – the Vedmezha Gora family resort and the hospitable manor “Anastasia”, where tourists are attracted by European class services – swimming pool, sauna, salt room, phytocupes, gymnasium, children’s room, excursions, horseback riding and quad bikes, rafting alloys The same opportunities exist for representatives of the tourist business Vygodchyshchina, and during the visit they were able to find out how they can be successfully used.
Participants learned about the benefits for the community, and especially for the development of the tourism business, by visiting a center built on its territory, visiting the ecotourism visit center, which was also built in the framework of the EU-funded project of the Tourist Association of Ivano-Frankivsk region, but partnership with the Carpathian NPP. Today, this center is a modern and functional institution that actively detains tourists in the region and promotes the development of an attractive ecotourism image of the region.
In Verkhovyna representatives of the tourist business visited the private museum “Hutsul hut-stave”, where they took part in the master class for the production of Hutsul construction. The owners of the museum were happy to share with the participants of the seminar the secrets of doing business, provided useful recommendations and proposals for the implementation of such an initiative in the Dolinsky district.
One of the components of the workshop was the presentation of opportunities for the development of additional responsible tourism services, where interesting business ideas were presented, such as the ethnic route “Hutsulshchyna sacral”, the rope park “Dovbush road”, the cycle routes “Veloekrina”, other services for tourists (walks on horses, bicycles, jeeps, hiking tours, rafting). Similar services can be successfully implemented in the Valley of the Valley participants in the workshop.
