Breathtaking highland landscapes and city views, ancient castles and churches, hiking and extreme sports, magical national dances, delicious food – it just seems that all of the wonders of Ukraine have been fitted into a new three-minute-long tourism promo video.
The video was released by Ukraine’s Ministry of economic development and trade on Dec. 4 as a presentation of Ukraine at one of the world’s most popular tourism industry’s forums – World Travel Market 2015. The video is a part of the governmental promo campaign “Ukraine. Open for U” supported by Western NIS Enterprise Fund.
The video called “Experience Ukraine! We are open for tourism” is the most popular among similar videos about Ukraine. In six days it was watched more than 177,000 times on YouTube.
“The main point of the video was to show how diverse and colorful our country is. It kind of says: See, Ukraine is beautiful and safe now, so come visit!,” Yulia Kovaliv, the first deputy of the Economic Development and Trade Minister, said in a statement on the ministry’s website.
And the video seems to be serving its purpose of attracting foreign tourists to the country just right.
Jenny Wills of United Kingdom visited Ukraine once on business and didn’t get to see any tourist attractions, but she said the video made her wish she had.
“I wished I’d had chance to eat some traditional foods and also loved the water sports and beautiful countryside,” she said, adding she is determined to come back to Ukraine one day.
The video’s production team shot the landscapes of western, southern, central and eastern Ukraine from a helicopter and from rooftops. The video was set to a song by Ukraine’s legendary rock band Okean Elzy.
The script for the video was drafted by the ministry employees and the Titanium Presentations production company. The production took two months. No state funds were used for it – the video was paid for with a grant from the Western NIS Enterprise Fund. However, Kovaliv couldn’t say how much the video cost.
Ukrainian video experts say the work looks quite expensive.
“It is very stylish and discreet. No unnecessary frills. The shooting and installation are professional,” says Serhiy Polishchuk, Kyiv Mohyla School of Journalism professor and a producer at the Ukraina TV Channel. According to him, producing such a video would cost roughly $5,000 or more.
The video will soon be presented to the international community at the 36th International Tourism Trade Fair in Madrid, Spain in January 2016 and at the ITB Travel Trade Show in Berlin in March 2016.
Kyiv Post writer Daryna Shevchenko can be reached at [email protected]
