There are different ways to increase business cooperation between the countries. During more than 10 years of active work, our Chamber of Commerce tested many of them and we can say for sure that the “come and see” approach gives maximum effect. Therefore in 2019, we chose to focus more on study trips. We believe that the more Norwegians visit Ukraine the more chances there will be for them to see the great potential that exists for developing business between our countries.

To make visits sustainable and to multiply them we decided to focus on developing tourism. Three years in a row we organized FAM trips for a number of Norwegian travel companies. Almost all of them started selling tours to Ukraine, either for big groups or individuals. This year, together with Lviv and Odesa City Administration as well as our member Nordic Ukraine and AirBaltic we managed to bring 9 new tour operators to see what Lviv, Odesa, and Kyiv have to offer. Norwegian travel journalist, Runar Larsen from Reiselyst Magasinet joined the tour and made two nice articles about the trip – one about Kyiv and one about Chernobyl which is coming on sale in the magazine next week.

Though, you don’t need to wait for the next week to fly to Ukraine, because starting already this Saturday, 26th of October you can fly Oslo-Kyiv directly for the first time since 2014. SAS opens direct flights and we hope that tour operators on both sides will capitalize on this possibility and bring more tourists to between our countries while we will continue helping them on this path.

Already starting in early 2020, on January 4-5, we will arrange Ukrainian stand on one of the biggest Norwegian travel forums – Reiselivsmessen in Oslo where Norwegian tour operators will have opportunity to learn about and get useful contacts from Lviv, Odesa, and Kyiv.