Oleksiy Yevchenko, managing partner of the ArtBuild Hotel Group, took part in the 5th International Tourism Forum «Win with the Lion», which took place on the 27-28 of November 2013 in Lviv.
This annual event is a professional meeting place for experts in both the tourism and hospitality industries, and provides a platform for fostering collaboration and partnership in the sphere of tourism and development of new projects. The philosophy of the forum is to stay abreast of trends, to explore the current market, to understand the tastes and expectations of clients, to create competitive products, to use effective marketing and communication tools, to stimulate the economy of the city/country and to develop touristic and hotel markets of Ukraine.
This two-day program of the forum included a variety of meeting and discussion formats, including workshops, interactive and strategic sessions, business breakfast and discussion on relevant topics of the hospitality industry and tourism development in Ukraine in general.
The ArtBuild Hotel Group took an active part in a business breakfast hosted by Arzinger Law Firm, where they discussed current legal issues in the hospitality industry. Oleksiy Yevchenko, along with representatives of Arzinger, acted as moderators in addition to representing the hospitality industry as one of the main developers of new assessment criteria for accommodation facilities based on the standards of the Hotelstars. They held a discussion on «Mandatory categorization of accommodation facilities: excessive governmental control or urgent need for players of the market?». In fact, the issues of unauthorized appropriation of «stars» by Ukrainian hotels, cooperation with state agencies in the development of categorization system and the prospects and benefits of mandatory categorization of hotels in Ukraine were touched during the discussion.
According to Oleksiy Yevchenko, «categorization is the most important criterion that helps a consumer to be clearly oriented in the quantity and quality of services provided by the hotel of a certain class. As world practice shows, the classification system of hotels can be expressed in different ways («stars», «diamonds», «trees», etc.), but its essence remains the same: in one class (one category) there is a certain set of criteria determining the level of the hotel product, its price segment, which is equally clear for consumers and hoteliers all around the world».
Among the guests and speakers of the International Forum, were government representitives, reps of international public organizations, experts on hospitality law, marketing, tourism, etc. In particular, the Forum brought together Andriy Sadovyy, Lviv City Mayor; Tom Hulton, Director International Relations IMEX Group; Indrė Rutkauskaitė, Vilnius Tourist Information Centre & Convention Bureau; Liudmyla Korzhenevska, regional manager, Ukraine International Airlines; Nick Greenfield, Head of Tour Operator Relations, European Tour Operators Association (ETOA); Giorgi Sigua, Head of the Georgian National Tourism Administration; Mykola Marinov, First Deputy Minister of Tourism and Resorts of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and many others.
For more information about the International Tourism Forum «Win with the Lion» can be found on the event webpage: http://www.congress.lviv.ua/en/forum-2013/.
