Where the Story Begins: As we celebrated World Tourism Day with the theme of peace and the WTTC Summit approaches again with the great and good of the global travel industry gathering in Perth it is a good time to reflect on one of the best outcomes personally for me (and I think many other colleagues ) of that summit.

As I listened in awe to Mariana Oleskiv, Chairperson at State Agency for Tourism Development of Ukraine talking on stage of what she and her colleagues had been living through for the last 18 months in Ukraine the audience was hushed and humbled and it was a conversation that followed between us that motivated me to gather the great and good at FINN Partners to give our time pro bono to achieve her wishes.

With the devastating war in Israel and Gaza dominating headlines, Mariana was concerned that the world might forget Ukraine and that tourism, crucial to Ukraine’s post-war recovery, would not return to people’s minds when peace is restored. Ukraine’s tourism professionals are still on the frontlines, with many of the country’s monuments and heritage sites intact and its natural beauty preserved. The challenge was how to tell this story to the world.

We gathered the best of our creatives and people in our teams who really care about Ukraine (FINN Partners have been the agency of record for the Victor Pinchuk Foundation for more than 10 years) and we had two amazing Ukrainian nationals in our team in: Anna Pavlova and Stefaniia Konovalova.

The Challenge

The objective was clear: bring Ukraine’s future as a tourist destination back into the global conversation. We aimed to encourage “bucket-list” aspirations, much like destinations did during COVID-19 via social media, while also fostering partnerships that would aid in rebuilding Ukraine’s tourism infrastructure.

All the while, we wanted to share with the world what important roles individuals who used to work in tourism are playing during the war but how much their spirits are being kept alive knowing one day they will be able to go back to their roles.

The Solution

With ITB being the biggest global event in the travel industry calendar our goal was to use this gathering of nearly 100,000 senior professionals to showcase Ukraine, its tourism professionals and product plus encourage engagement for the future. But it was just 6 weeks away….

With weekly calls with Mariana and her team from Ukraine we came up with a brilliant solution but could we pull it off in time? With video and social media being two of the most powerful methods of communication we decided to make a video with a powerful storytelling narrative created by managing partner for EMEA Chantal Bowman-Boyles who herself had been to Ukraine many times. Does anyone remember those powerful tv images at the beginning of the war when President Zelensky was accused of fleeing the country? And do you remember the footage of him and his team filming themselves on their mobiles showing the world “We are Here”? Our theme was born.

So it was over to Jimmy Chaffin our managing partner for creative and his team in Nashville to take over the creative. The initial footage was shot on the ground in Ukraine, which posed a lot of difficulties in itself. Any additional footage if needed was being requested at times literally from the frontlines. We also had to overcome language obstacles but with the Ukrainians on our team working with Mariana’s team and both with Jimmy’s creative unit we managed to solve that problem.

While Jimmy and the team worked on the video the travel team needed to secure a speaking slot for Marianna and a room to premiere the video – not easy when these are usually booked many months ahead. Thankfully, we had our night in shining armour Rika Jean-Francois , the head of sustainability at ITB. A press conference room was secured and a speaking slot at the the Lighthouse Stage at the event entitled ‘Brave and Bold – we are still here’ for Marianna, all the while knowing what a challenge it was going to be for Marianna and her team to even get to Berlin (it took them almost 2 days and changing 3 types of transport).

Speaking notes, invitations and press releases were being written all the while not knowing if we would receive the video interviews from the frontline and if Mariana would even be able to leave Ukraine!

The Finale

With standing room only there was not a dry eye in the press conference room, including ourselves! The video received a standing ovation and the global travel industry was clear on one thing – the Ukraine travel sector are “still here and they will be back” with positive press coverage and great sharing on social media we hope that this powerful campaign has helped influence some of the aid partnerships that have since been signed for when the war is over .

Mariana’s quote: “We are grateful for the outpouring of support, and this campaign has brought renewed hope that Ukraine will once again open its doors to the world.”

Click here to view the video

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