How can communities start making money from hospitality during wartime?

Having been working on the development of the community for several years, while actively traveling through Ukraine and Europe as a bicycle traveler, I have noticed such a problem in Ukraine – for some reason, we have a rather weakly developed segment of the tourism market, which is called “rural green tourism”.

Green tourism estates are relatively widely represented only in the Ukrainian Carpathian region, and very selectively in the rest of Ukraine.

Having many interesting tourist locations (only in my Khmelnytskyi region – more than 3,000 monuments of cultural and historical heritage), local residents and the community do not know how to make enough money from tourists.

And are those people who stop by to take a selfie against the background of an ancient wooden church, the ruins of a fortress or a local waterfall, tourists? Most likely, no, because a tourist is a person who is on a tourist trip for at least 24 hours or has at least one overnight stay outside his own home. Visitors, excursionists, and bloggers, who limit themselves to selfies and pictures against the background of a local landmark, do not bring much benefit to the community for one simple reason – they do not leave money.

And is there a place to leave? Does the local community have a clear tourism offer? Does it have a ready-made “tourism product”? Are there green manors in the community for overnight stays and learning about local traditions? Are there interesting entertainment, local cooking, the opportunity to buy locally produced goods, etc.?

An additional and very significant factor for the development of rural green tourism was the war. For part of Ukraine, tourism has disappeared as a phenomenon in 2022, and for another part, tourism has even increased compared to the pre-war years. We will also talk about the risks and opportunities for tourism due to the war factor.

Homestead, hostel, hotel, motel, recreation center — what is what?

First of all, let’s understand what a “rural green estate” is, how it differs from, for example, a mini hotel.

Rural green tourism is a holiday organized by a rural family in the village on their own farm. A mandatory element is the leisure time that a rural family or region can offer. The central figure in the organization of recreation in the village is the village family and the village estate.

Simply put, what distinguishes a country house from a mini hotel or motel is that it is usually a regular country house, and the owners live on the same territory, in the same yard or even in the same house as their guests, and the very offer of rest in the manor is wider than just overnight accommodation.

Is a homestead an affordable business at all?

Starting a rural green tourism homestead is a much easier start in the hospitality business than opening a hotel because 2 important business components are already in place:

a) staff, i.e. you and your family members;

b) real estate, i.e. your house;

c) it remains only to “pump up” your skills in estate management, marketing, understand what additional services can be offered, where to find tourists, etc.

Who is your guest and what is your “chip”?

Think about the concept of your estate, what will be its highlight? What kind of tourist do you want to see in yourself? Someone decorates a manor house in the style of an old Ukrainian village with a thatched roof, like Inna Velychko’s Cultural and Art Center “Poliska Hata”. Someone takes the military theme as the central motif, like the Grün Hof Military Manor, and someone takes bicycle tourists as the central motif and main audience, as in our Manor House of the Traveler, Manor on Bakota, p. Gorayivka 

The target audience of the homestead must be determined, otherwise a problem will inevitably arise when a family looking for silence and unity with nature wants to relax in one room, and a group of bicycle travelers loudly relax with a guitar in the other.

What categories of vacationers can be: 

• family with children; 
• school group; 
• elderly people;
• company of friends; 
• foreign tourist;
• pedestrian and bicycle traveler; 
• ethnographic tourist;
• internally displaced persons (displaced persons).

What services can be sold in the estate? First of all, it is, of course, an overnight stay. But many estates limit themselves to this, offering almost nothing else, and this is unacceptable!

A few simple and real to implement ideas, which services can be provided in the estate:

• rooms for 1-4 people; 
• group rooms for more than 4 people; 
• place for tents, parking;
• food (regional cuisine, ecological products); 
• walks in the forest, picking mushrooms;
• drying of collected mushrooms, berries, herbs;  
• horse riding;  
• fishing and hunting;
• the possibility of assistance in agricultural work;
• master classes on regional cuisine and folk crafts;
• bike rides;
• ATV rides, equipment rental;
• kayaking and boating;
• shooting with air rifles and bows;
• launching kites;
•  board games;
• aromatherapy, hypotherapy, apitherapy; 
• a room or playground for children, babysitting services; 
• lounge with TV, internet access; a gazebo, a gazebo, a place for a fireplace and a grill;
• playground for volleyball, football, badminton.

To eat or not to eat? Kitchen in the country estate Raju should not forget about the provision of catering services and especially about the tasting sets. Here are some reasons why the homestead should start a kitchen:

• during tourism, everyone consumes food;
• food is one of the tourist’s favorite attractions; 
• regional cuisine is increasingly becoming the main reason for a tourist’s visit;
•  gastronomic tourism has no season;
• covers all age groups of tourists;
• good cuisine has a positive effect on all the senses of the tourist.

How to form a price for services? I distinguish three approaches to the formation of the price for estate services:

•  Costs of running a green estate (cost). You can calculate your expenses for providing this or that service (the cost of washing clothes, the cost of electricity and other utility bills, consumables (soap, toilet paper, etc.), depreciation of the estate, etc.) and estimate a certain %, which will be your earnings.
• Funds of competitive estates. You can see how much the services of competing estates cost and offer a little less at the beginning, or vice versa – a little more if you see that your offer is better than other estates.
• Amounts that the client is willing to pay. That’s how to ask potential customers: “How much would you pay for this or that service?” Sometimes the answer will surprise you, and that price will be much higher than you thought.

And where to sell my services? What should marketing be? The goal of marketing activity of the estate owner should be:

• providing information about a unique offer;
• building guest loyalty and encouraging regular visits;
•  reducing the impact of seasonality by motivating guests to visit outside the main season.

Areas where you can post information about the estate:

• Internet site of the manor;
• mark on Google map;
• Instagram and Facebook pages (and don’t forget about TikTok);
• offer on marketplaces, for example, OLX;
• offer on specialized websites, for example, on the website of the Association for the Promotion of the Development of Rural Green Tourism;
• Booking – but take your time here, I do not recommend this option for beginners, only for experienced owners;
• bloggers and regional mass media (arrange the visit of famous bloggers or a press tour to your estate).

These, of course, are far from all aspects of organizing the activities of a rural green estate, but at least I briefly disclosed the main aspects. And in general, I advise you to take it as a basis

• to interest (find the thread for which the tourist will come to visit you);
• delay (give him interesting services in the estate and in your region, interest him);
• capture (make this tourist tell everyone he knows how great his vacation was at your place).

And then in your estate and in your community there will be no resistance from tourists.

Serhiy Tolstikhin, an expert in the development of tourism in communities, a member of the board of the Union of SZTU, the owner of the “Traveler’s House” estate, the author and host of TV programs about tourism, a bicycle traveler who visited 31 countries by bicycle.