Government-business cooperation will save our castles

Besides legislators from both countries, the meeting was attended by experts on tourism and protection of historical monuments from Ternopil, Lviv, Zakarpattia, Chernivtsi, and Khmelnytsky oblasts. Chairman of the Subcommittee on Tourism, Resorts, and Recreation Activities of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine’s Committee on Family, Youth, Sports and Tourism Ivan Bushko stressed: “Although we have many interesting objects in our common cultural heritage, especially in western Ukraine, lack of funding prevents their restoration, while the poor state of our infrastructure is another major obstacle. The government is unable to solve the problem of preserving historical and architectural monuments on its own. The situation calls for greater use of business community’s resources, as well as common European grants, a very important source of funding nowadays.”

Having a third of Ukraine’s castles and fortifications (mostly in terrible disrepair), Ternopil region should see the development of so-called castle tourism as an urgent task, the meeting’s participants emphasized. The term refers to long-term leasing of historic buildings to be refurbished into museums, hotels, and other establishments on the condition of preserving architectural ensembles intact. Polish experience is particularly interesting in this regard. The Ukrainian office director of the Polish Tourist Organization Wlodzimierz Szczurek presented the model of cooperation between business and government in the Polish tourism industry and said: “Businesspeople are well aware where one can make money. I know the owner of a Crusaders’ castle who has restored it at his own expense. His lease conditions include allowing all comers to see for free the castle’s architecture and archaeological finds he made during the reconstruction. A lot of nationally-important castles are now in the hands of private businesses in Poland.” Szczurek stressed also that state-supported promotion of tourist sites plays a significant role in the industry’s development: “The number of tourists visiting the country is a good indicator of its image abroad.” By the way, 12 to 15 million foreign tourists visit Poland annually now, and as much as 1,600,000 of them are Ukrainians, placing Ukraine the second overall after Germany.

As of now, the Ukrainian legislation has no provisions for cooperation between business and government in restoration of historic buildings. The field session’s participants passed recommendations for the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. They call, in particular, for establishing the framework for sale or long term lease of historical and cultural sites to private sector entities on the condition of preserving their architectural style and originality, as well as the framework for cooperation between the investor and the State Architectural Service on preservation, restoration, and operating monuments of architecture, and for providing information and advertising support to the castle tourism industry.