During the Covid-19 pandemic, tourists’ choosing process of places to visit and travel to has changed drastically. So, the issue of quality analysis of inbound tourism has become more acute. Participants in the tourism sphere faced problems with assessing the target audience and, accordingly, planning marketing budgets.
In recent years, the Lviv Tourism Development Center has been collecting and analyzing data from various sources to understand and characterize the tourist who chooses Lviv for his trip. The company regularly analyzes the data of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine at Danylo Halytskyi “Lviv” International Airport, the State Fiscal Service, the mobile operator “Kyivstar”, the hotel market analyst service “HotelMatrix”, the tourist barometer data and the results of opinion polls.
Based on data from accommodations, in 2021 Lviv was visited by 1.5 million tourists, which is twice as many as in 2020, but 40% less than in the pre-pandemic year of 2019.
Comparing data from accommodation, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine at Danylo Halytskyi “Lviv” International Airport and visitors to the Tourist Information Centers (airport, railway station, center), we formed a list of top 10 countries from which tourists most often traveled to Lviv.
It includes: Ukraine - 41%, Turkey - 15%, Poland - 14%, USA, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Great Britain, Russia and Belarus.
Data from the State Fiscal Service
The amount of tourist tax received by the Lviv city budget of 2021 amounted to UAH 11.3 million. This is the highest index in ten years. Compared to 2011 (UAH 925,000), it increased 12 times. Also, this index is higher than in the pre-quarantine period - in 2019, revenues from the payment of tourist tax in Lviv are amounted to UAH 10,084,000. Compared to 2019, in 2021 the tourist tax increased by 12.4%.
Revenues to the city budget from the tourism industry amount to UAH 245 million, which is 46% more than in 2020 and 23% more than in 2019.
Last year, most taxes were paid on restaurants, theater, concert, accommodation and museums operations.
The number of employees in the tourism industry at the end of 2021 was about 90 thousand people.
“HotelMatrix” hotel market analysts service data
In 2021 Lviv Tourism Development Center began cooperation with a new partner - “HotelMatrix”. They shared analytical data of the hotel market of Ukraine.
The occupancy rate shows the percentage of rooms sold in relation to those available over a certain period of time.
The ADR indicator is the average daily fee, which shows the pricing policy of hotels.
RevPAR is the profitability of each individual rental space in relation to the total number of rooms.
In conclusion, the period from June to October is profitable for Lviv hotels, as the average occupancy rate of hotels is higher than the average in Ukraine.
The decline points are observed in April and November, which can be related to the peak periods of Covid-19.
Marketing research
On the basis of marketing research conducted by the method of questionnaires, we made an analysis of indicators that allow us to learn the behavior of tourists.
50.5% of tourists visited Lviv for the first time in 2021. Despite the difficult economic circumstances surrounding the spread of Covid-19, new accommodation facilities were opened and reconstructed in Lviv. The duration of tourists’ visitations in the city has increased from 3.8 days in 2019 to 5 in 2021.
The average cost per tourist in 2021 in Lviv was 94 euros per day.
78% of guests came to Lviv for recreation and leisure. 13.5% of tourists came to visit relatives and friends. Business meetings - 9% and 4.5% - participation in conferences, competitions and contests.
Most tourists came to Lviv by train (39%) and by plane (28%). Fewer people came by car and bus, but compared to 2019, the dynamics increased. Tourists lived mainly in apartments (45%), less in hotels (22%) and hostels (16%). A new indicator of "living with friends" was also added, which in 2021 is 16%.
In 2021, thousands of tourists from Saudi Arabia arrived in Ukraine after establishing direct flights to the Persian Gulf countries.
The increase in the number of tourists from Saudi Arabia is due to the entry into the Ukrainian flights list in May 2021 of the low-cost carrier of Saudi Arabia – “flynas”.
The largest share of tourists, according to surveys, traveled with family (76%), most - with friends (10%), others - alone or with colleagues.
Leisure was the motivation for most tourists. Among the main requests: delicious food, comfortable hotels, well-developed infrastructure, a combination of urban and natural locations and shopping.
The average cost of one tourist from Saudi Arabia was about 114 €.
According to the survey, tourists from Saudi Arabia are most satisfied with the following indicators:
- atmosphere and charm of the city;
- prices for goods and services;
- hospitality of residents;
- food quality.
Based on sociological research, it was possible to analyze how tourists evaluate their trip to Lviv. The Index of Tourist Attractiveness of the city, which is 4.8, and the Index of Satisfaction with Tourist Services are 4.4.
In particular, tourists praised the quality of housing, food and service in institutions, good indicators also in the following points: tourist information, hospitality, convenience of booking travel and the attractiveness of the city for tourists in general.
The index of tourist attractiveness of the city and satisfaction with tourist services are the main indicators of the effectiveness of the City's Competitiveness Strategy. This is an average score on a 5-point scale, where 1 is completely dissatisfied and 5 is completely satisfied.
The index of satisfaction with tourist services takes into account various services, including the quality of service in catering establishments, the quality of housing, public transport, road conditions, tourist information, convenience of movement, security in the city and more.
The index of tourist attractiveness of the city is formed by such indicators as atmosphere, aura, charm of the city, historical and cultural monuments, religious places, hospitality and enticement of the city for tourists in general.
Attendance at Tourist Information Centers
In 2021, tourist information centers were visited by about 30,000 tourists, of whom 42% are Ukrainians and 58% are foreigners. We are witnessing a positive trend of doubling the number of foreign tourists compared to 2020.
The top 5 countries included Poland, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Belarus and Germany. Among the Ukrainian cities in the top five are Kyiv, Odessa, Kharkiv, Dnipro, and Ivano-Frankivsk.
Most often, tourists asked for printed materials, information about cultural institutions, transport and reference information.
Tourist information centers are usually visited by individual tourists who plan their own trip.
Due to the increase in flights, there was an increase in the number of visitors to the tourist information center located at the airport, by 19% compared to 2019.
Data of mobile operator “Kyivstar”
In the era of information technologies and the practice of using BigData Lviv Tourism Development Center for the third year in a row, conducts parallel data analysis in partnership with the mobile operator “Kyivstar” (share in the mobile services market 41.6% - 27.3 million subscribers). At different depths of penetration received the following figures:
Ukrainian tourists
- In 2021, 1.2 million “Kyivstar” subscribers visited Lviv (excluding tourists from the Lviv region to exclude pendulum migration).
- Most tourists were from Kyiv region, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, Khmelnytskyi and Rivne regions.
- 77.2% of tourists stayed in the city for 2-3 days, 18.8% for 4-7 days and only 4.1% stayed for a longer period.
Foreign tourists
- There were more than 150,000 “Kyivstar” foreign subscribers in Lviv, which is 85% more than in 2020.
- There is a sharp increase in the number of foreign subscribers since April and the peak period in August, as in 2020.
- Most tourists came from Poland, Italy, the United States, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom.
- Most foreign tourists stayed in Lviv for a short period of 2-3 days.
Lviv Tourism Development Center collected and processed the above data.
For the use, modeling, planning of marketing activities, we invite you to contact us with a request to provide source data to the e-mail address lviv.tdc@lvivcity.gov.ua.
