Closer to Europe. How tourism is reviving in Transcarpathia

The sign on the exit from Uzhgorod shows a distance of 745 km to Kiev. Locals joke: Transcarpathia is closer to 12 European capitals than to the capital of Ukraine. Today, this region is becoming a real tourist competitor not only to the hyped Ukrainian Lviv, but also to neighboring Hungary and Slovakia.

“Transcarpathia is a tourist Klondike, in each of 13 districts there is some kind of zest that can attract tourists,” says Denis Man, a young and energetic head of the Department of Economics of the Transcarpathian Regional State Administration. It was with his arrival in the region that a real tourist boom began. Decentralization also helped: in 2017, a record 3 million UAH was allocated here for the development of tourism – a huge amount for Transcarpathia. Continue reading →