CHORNOBYL TOUR

CHORNOBYL TOUR is a company that founded and officialized Chornobyl Tourism to convey the Chornobyl experience and history to people from all over the world by bringing them to the site of the event, which had had an important impact on the evolution and mindset of our civilization. The distinguishing features of CHORNONYL TOUR are its relying on verified up-to-date scientific knowledge from different fields, conveying this knowledge in an accessible popular science format, designing the tours’ scenarios according to the rules of drama (which made them both emotional and entertaining), and the highest international standards of the tourists’ service.

The company was founded in 2009 by a liquidator, radiation reconnaissance platoon commander, ecologist and writer Sergii Mirnyi and a journalist Yaroslav Yemelianenko. Their idea was to heal the post-Chornobyl trauma, to show the feat of the Chornobyl liquidators (disaster mitigation workers) and their achievements, and thus to change the perception of Ukrainians from the nation of Chornobyl victims – to the nation of Chornobyl victors. This well-informed, responsible and multifaceted approach has proved to be a success.

Since then, in addition to the tours, the company has created a host of novel spin-offs, including educational and social. A network of the first tourist information centers at the Chornobyl zone not only served hundreds of thousands of tourists, offering them the topical books (including liquidators’ memoirs), maps, souvenirs, dosimeters, coffee, snacks, etc., but also provide jobs to residents of the affected Chornobyl region and thus helping its revival.

Using income from tourism, CHORNOBYL TOUR started the Chornobyl University, which aimed to concentrate, shape and disseminate the experience of the Chornobyl Disaster and its overcoming, and specifically focused at the novel phenomena of Chornobyl tourism.

The company, at the abandoned, decayed and heavily littered courtyard, which it revived, created the CHERNOBYL HUB – an educational and cultural space in the downtown Kyiv, opened for public. It initiated the Associations of Chornobyl Tour Operators, of Chornobyl Tourism and of Chornobyl Guides to improve the quality of services provided, to set professional standards in the field, and to unite specialists. It designed and several unorthodox, witty products to destigmatize Chornobyl and promote its positive image – “Chornobyl Vyshivanka [Embroidery]”, “Chornobyl Cola”, “Chornobyl Air”, “Chornobyl Food”, etc.

For many years CHORNOBYL TOUR has been engaged in social projects. It helped Chornobyl self-settlers, who returned to their native homesteads in the Zone, conducted free trips for former residents of the Chornobyl zone and liquidators, organized the program of educational trips for the residents of villages near the Chornobyl zone (the latter with the support of Kyiv City and Kyiv Regional State Administrations). During large-scale fires in the Chornobyl zone in 2020, that lasted more than a month, CHORNOBYL TOUR created a Volunteer Center, which supported firefighters and affected civilians.

One of the main areas of the company’s social activities is the preservation of the historical and cultural heritage of Chornobyl. Since 2016, the CHORNOBYL TOUR team has been actively working on the open-air museums in the Chornobyl zone. In 2017 it initiated submitting the Chornobyl sites and objects to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites List. This work led to the recognition of the Chornobyl zone in 2021 as a national Tourist Magnet of Ukraine – one of the main tourist locations in the country. The “Duga” over-horizon radar station – a monument of technology and the Cold War, located in the Chornobyl zone, – was recognized as a preserved national heritage.

Since the beginning of the full-scale war the Chornobyl zone is closed to visitors. The company has switched from tourist to volunteer activities to support defense of its native country, namely aiding the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the war-affected populations. CHORNOBYL TOUR handed to the Ukrainian Army its two “BRDM-2” Soviet armored reconnaissance patrol vehicles plus relevant souvenir products (warm clothes, dosimeters, maps of the Chornobyl zone, etc.).

In the first, most critical days of the enemy’s advance at the capital of the state, the main route of the invading forces passed by the Chornobyl zone checkpoint “Dytjatky”, – where two company’s tourist information centers were located. Their surveillance cameras provided in real time the exact number of the alien vehicles (tanks, armored vehicles, trucks with personnel and fuel), which moved towards Kyiv, to the Ukrainian Army’s General Staff. Later, after the occupation of the Chornobyl area, CHORNOBYL TOUR collected valuable info through the network of its local employees and acquaintances. This valuable intelligence proved to be instrumental for the defense and later victory in the Battle for Kyiv. This story was covered by the world media, including The Washington Post.

Later CHORNOBYL TOUR created Volunteer Center CHORNOBYL, which focused on evacuation of civilians through the uneven frontline in the areas adjacent to Chornobyl, on social and psychological aid to the local occupation survivors, on assistance to the civilian population and to medical institutions and family doctors of the city of Kyiv and Kyiv region.

Currently, the company’s specialists are conducting free professional training for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the State Emergency Service, the National Guard, police, military medics, etc. in the rules of safe work in radiation-contaminated territories and actions in case of nuclear or chemical attack. CHORNOBYL TOUR actively works on establishment of solidarity volunteer tourism in Ukraine (the project being supported by USAID), to support the defense and liberation of our country and its revival both before and after the end of the war.