Tours to Chernobyl after the series: wait for the hype?
Mini-series “Chernobyl” (TV channel HBO) blew up social networks in Russia. On the wave of interest in the film and the tragic events of 33 years ago, the question arose - whether there are tours to the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
Search in the browser allows you to open resources that are engaged in "organizing excursions" and "tours" to the Chernobyl zone from Russia - Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, and other cities.
"Tours" - full-fledged "tourist packages" the company does not offer. You can book for a certain date excursion service on the spot at tourist companies of Ukraine, and get on your own.
There are many programs of tours in the Chernobyl zone: Pripyat, Slavutich, station. Trips are possible for a period of 1 to 7 days, group, individual, aviation. The age limit is over 18 years old.
The cost of "Chernobyl" tours is 35-80 dollars per day, depending on the program and type of excursion (group or individual), you need to add the cost of transport. Those who wish to rent a dosimeter for 10 dollars a day.
There are “tours on the HBO series”, in the program: a visit to the real locations of the Chernobyl exclusion zone, which are played out in the series. The basement of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the fire department, the medical unit of Pripyat, the bridge from which, in the film, Pripyat residents watched the fire.
Resources that offer extreme tourism are Russified Internet versions of Ukrainian host travel companies or “shadow tourism”. Russian sites positioning the product as “official excursions from Russia to Chernobyl and Pripyat” do not contain information about the legal entity of the organizers, contacts.
Tour operators of the Russian Federation, offering sightseeing tourist products, do not want to deal with the “Chernobyl” topic on ethical and economic issues.
Today, excursions to Chernobyl are made by Kiev and Gomel travel agencies on the market. The Ukrainian part of the Zone, of course, is more interesting, but it is difficult for Russians to access it because of problems with entry into the zone. Ukraine..., said S. Romashkin, director of the tour operator Dolphin.
The cost of excursions at Belarusian and Ukrainian travel agencies is 5-10 thousand rubles per person per day. Radiation background in the excursion area is not dangerous.
“We are not even economically interested: a very small flow and a small average check. This is extreme tourism in its pure form ... the very idea of such tours seems to me questionable. We are for bright colors on vacation, a positive, healthy lifestyle.
Vladimir Lutov, director of the tour operator "Travel Workshop" agrees with his colleague: "First, it's all not quite legal." Secondly, it is Ukraine, with the known difficulties of crossing the border and the lack of direct flights.”
The expert is sure that there is no demand for such tours on the websites of classic tour operators in Russia: I do not see prospects in this direction of tourism. Even if I go to Chernobyl 4 people a year, the profit will be less than the cost of PR tours.
According to V. Lutov, an interesting alternative for travelers can be trips "to Kamchatka or Altai <...> to the Dyatlov Pass, the Manpupuner Plateau or five lakes in Omsk.
Source: atorus