Ukraine Builds Big Memorial Tourism Framework to Preserve Heritage and Support Recovery

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In Ukraine, the creation of a national model of memorial tourism takes place alongside the long-term process of rehabilitation of the country’s cultural and tourism industry. It is aimed at combining efforts to preserve wartime memories and rehabilitate Ukraine’s cultural and tourism sectors. Under the leadership of the State Agency for Tourism Development of Ukraine (SATD), the development of educational paths to connect the places linked to the events of the full-scale invasion of Russia into Ukraine and its resistance is being carried out. The program of the Route Through Places of Memory was initiated in 2025, not introduced in 2026 on October 12.

A national network of memorial destinations

The initiative aims to establish thematic routes linking significant places of memory across Ukraine’s regions. These include locations associated with civilian suffering, resistance to occupation, damaged cultural heritage and events that have shaped the country’s contemporary history.

According to SATD’s 2025 annual report, the agency worked with the Ministry for Communities and Territories Development to develop a digital portal called Places of Memory. The platform contains more than 100 locations proposed by regional working groups for inclusion in the national memorial route.

Its planned features include photographs, historical information, eyewitness accounts, documentary materials, audio guides and virtual-reality elements. A route-planning function is also intended to help users understand the geographical and historical connections between different sites.

The project is designed to develop a responsible approach to memorial tourism. Rather than treating locations associated with destruction and loss as conventional sightseeing attractions, the framework seeks to provide historical context and encourage respectful engagement with the experiences of affected communities.

Borodyanka provides an early example

One of the practical examples emerged in Borodyanka, a town in the Kyiv region that suffered extensive destruction during Russia’s occupation in 2022.

Between July and December 2025, an organised educational excursion route operated in the community. It introduced visitors to locations associated with the destruction, the town’s history and its subsequent recovery.

SATD reported that eight introductory tours took place, involving approximately 150 participants. The experience provided an early example of how memorial routes could combine historical interpretation with an understanding of reconstruction and community resilience.

The approach also highlights the importance of local participation. Residents, historians, cultural organisations and municipal authorities have a role in determining how sites are presented and how visitors engage with difficult historical experiences.

Safety and demining remain essential

Any expansion of heritage visits in Ukraine must be considered against the continuing security situation. The presence of a site on a tourism portal or memorial route does not establish that it is safe to visit.

Explosive remnants of war, unexploded ordnance, damaged infrastructure and the continuing threat of missile and drone attacks remain serious concerns. Demining operations are conducted through specialist authorities, while official hazard information and regional security guidance are essential to any future access decisions.

The national memorial tourism initiative should therefore not be confused with a verified visitor-clearance system. There is no established evidence that SATD has introduced a nationwide registry certifying memorial routes as deemed or safe for commercial study visits.

Any future visitor framework will require close coordination between tourism authorities, emergency services, local administrations and demining specialists. Access arrangements must reflect verified local conditions and can change as the security situation develops.

International partnerships and heritage recovery

Ukraine’s tourism recovery ambitions are also gaining an international dimension. The Tourism Alliance for Ukraine, established in July 2025, brings together public authorities and international partners to coordinate support for a more resilient tourism sector.

Its priorities include sustainable infrastructure, cultural heritage recovery, digitalisation, investment and stronger regional tourism organisations. The alliance also identifies memory routes as an area for development, including digital interpretation and audio-guide services.

This work connects tourism with the wider reconstruction agenda. Damaged historic buildings, monuments and cultural institutions represent not only physical losses but also disruptions to local identity, employment and community life.

International architectural expertise, conservation funding and technical cooperation will be important in restoring heritage assets. However, reconstruction must be guided by conservation standards and the needs of local communities rather than solely by their future tourism potential.

Tourism as part of Ukraine’s longer recovery

In this context, the memorial routes project joins the ranks of projects that are supposed to contribute to domestic tourism in wartime. SATD has also created the notion of Routes of Silence, aimed at linking natural landscapes, national parks, cultural sights and sites of memory through trips aimed at healing and responsible domestic tourism. Taken together, such projects seem to indicate an expanded approach to the role of tourism in Ukraine. The future of tourism in Ukraine is tied up with such processes as education, commemoration, community resilience, and preservation of cultural heritage. In this case, the immediate task lies in ensuring safety, recording and responsible preservation rather than promoting unlimited international sightseeing. Meanwhile, the development of the planning process will ensure that memory routes in Ukraine become a structured way to preserve its recent history and tell about it to future generations. From the perspective of tourism, it will be important to see whether communities manage to remain in charge of their own histories and recovery process.