Alexei Evchenko, managing partner of ArtBuild Hotel Group, took part in the public discussion of proposals of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in order to establish categories of tourist facilities. Meeting took place on January 16, 2014 in Simferopol. The event was attended by government officials, in particular representatives of the State Agency of Ukraine for Resorts and Ttourism, the Council of Ministers of Crimea, public figures and heads of industry companies.
During the meeting topical issues on the categorization of tourist facilities in Ukraine in general and in ARC in particular were discussed. Alexei Evchenko reiterated the position of ArtBuild Hotel Group that we are supporters of mandatory categorization of accommodation and repeatedly made this initiative during the discussions at the state level. According to Alexei, "mandatory categorization system will encourage owners to bring Ukrainian hotels accommodation facilities in line with international standards and, as a consequence, foreign tourists will be oriented in our national hospitality product."
Among the important issues addressed during the event were:
1. Classification of accommodation facilities.
Alexander Liev, Minister of Resorts and Tourism of Crimea, proposed to divide accommodation facilities into 4 groups: - hotels offer more than 30 hospital beds; - mini-hotels, apartments and private households up to 30 hospital beds; - recreational facilities (health centers, dispensaries, DTC, etc.); - DALE (children's camps). During the discussion Alex Evchenko proposed to replace the 4th group with motels, because using hotel’s criteria for children's camps is not entirely correct.
2. Categorization: mandatory or optional.
Two approaches to categorization system of hotels were discussed at the meeting. The first approach is to create a list of 20-30 base and mandatory criteria (to be met at 100%), all other criteria are optional. The second approach - to create a large list of criteria, divided into mandatory and optional. If the object does not match one of mandatory criteria, it can be compensated with more optional. This approach is the most applicable in Crimea, because a large part of the hotel fund - old Soviet buildings constructed on the old building codes. Accordingly, if some of the items will not match mandatory criteria and a mean of accommodation will not receive a category because of that, the competitive conditions aren’t complied. Most of people presented at the event, including the leadership of the Ministry of Resorts and Tourism of Crimea, supported the second approach to a system of categorization of hotels.
3. The algorithm to perform and evaluate criteria. Inspecting entities.
At the meeting it was proposed to transfer the right of accomplishing the procedure of categorization to self-regulatory organizations or associations representing the majority of the market. Also, according to Alexei Evchenko, "it is important to understand what the document will be, that the new criteria are accepted with. This document must provide the possibility of making operative changes, if it’s needed in the result of their implementation into life. "
Moreover, Alexei raised another important issue related to the parallel process of categorization system of hotels implementation and other changes in the regulatory documents that are outdated, such as, for example, DBNs and DSTU.
The full version of the speech of Alexei Evchenko can be seen here.
