Domestic Tourism Has Not Disappeared, But Has Significantly Restructured
According to Alexey Voytsekhovsky, founder of the tourism portal 'To the Sea and to the Mountains', Ukrainian domestic tourism has not disappeared during the war, although it has decreased compared to pre-war figures. The key change, in his observations, lies in the logic of demand: tourists have stopped choosing a holiday based on the simple principle of 'sea means sea, mountains means mountains' and have started evaluating the entire trip scenario as a whole. The author emphasizes that his conclusions are based not on a single seasonal snapshot, but on years of tracking the behavior of his service's users and constant communication with accommodation owners on sea resorts and in the Carpathians. It is this long-term perspective, he says, that allows separating sustainable trends from random factors—weather, power outages, or local changes in safety.
From Simple Choice to Evaluating the Entire Scenario and Psychological Recovery
Voytsekhovsky notes that modern tourists find it harder to make a decision: people are increasingly weighing not only price, photos, and location, but also what they are willing to pay for, why they are willing to travel far, and what exactly should give them a few days away from their usual tense life. He separately highlights the factor of psychological recovery, which was discussed much less before. After several years of war, a holiday for many has become a way to change their rhythm, get enough sleep, spend time with family, and regain a sense of the 'finitude' of life. According to the author, it is this emotional component that today determines the most noticeable changes in travelers' preferences.
The Sea Returns Stronger Than Expected
In the current season, according to the portal's observations, there is a very high interest in seaside holidays—practically the most noticeable since the start of the full-scale war. At first glance, this looks like a paradox: the security situation remains complex, especially in Odesa, where air raids, risks, and issues regarding the use of beaches in popular locations persist. However, tourist behavior, according to Voytsekhovsky, shows that the need to return to the familiar summer scenario, even briefly, turned out to be very strong. For a person living in constant tension, the sea transforms from just sun and beach into a memory of normal life—the opportunity to wake up not to a siren, but to the sound of waves, and for a few days to feel that life consists of more than just news and worries.
Geography of Demand Expands, and Tourists Are Willing to Compromise
An important consequence of the growing interest in the sea is travelers' willingness to compromise. If previously a person might have refused a trip due to a small difference in comfort or lack of familiar infrastructure, now some tourists accept certain inconveniences for the very fact of resting by the sea. Therefore, this season attention is distributed not only towards the traditionally popular Odesa, but also towards resort locations that until recently seemed like less obvious choices: Zalyv, Karolino-Buhaz, Koblevo, and other coastal territories. A simple logic works here: when accommodation in one place becomes more expensive and it becomes harder to find free options, the tourist starts looking wider, and any location with a sea, normal access, and a minimum set of services becomes a competitor to the most famous spots. As a result, seaside holidays gradually cease to be a story about one or two famous locations, and demand is distributed more widely.
Caveats: This Is an Expert Observation, Not Government Statistics
It is important to consider the nature of the data presented. Voytsekhovsky directly points out that his conclusions are not a sociological survey or government statistics, but a practical observation of the real behavior of the audience of one specific tourism service. This means that the reflected dynamics well describe trends within the portal's audience but are not a representative sample of the whole country. Furthermore, the author himself emphasizes that one season can be deceptive: it is influenced by weather, power outages, and changes in safety. Therefore, the described shifts—growth in interest in the sea, expansion of geography, focus on psychological recovery—should be perceived as a sustainable trend fixed over a long distance, rather than as an exact quantitative measurement of the market.
