Event tourism is an important component of contemporary destination development because planned events can attract visitors, extend destination visibility, stimulate hospitality and service activity, reinforce local identity, and support place branding. At the same time, event-led development can create short-lived demand peaks, infrastructure pressure, environmental burdens, price increases, and uneven distribution of benefits. These opportunities and constraints are particularly relevant to Ukraine, where the tourism sector has operated under the severe conditions created by Russia’s full-scale invasion and where post-war recovery will require regionally differentiated strategies. This study examines how festivals and other planned events can contribute to regional tourism and economic development in Ukraine and proposes a structured approach to event-tourism development for the recovery period. The research uses a qualitative and descriptive-analytical design combining literature review, classification, comparative synthesis, secondary statistical analysis, and interpretation of publicly available Ukrainian tourism indicators. Regional tax-revenue data, accommodation statistics, Ukrainian case studies, and international event-tourism research are considered together. The results show that tourism activity has demonstrated substantial regional resilience despite wartime disruption, although recovery is spatially uneven and should not be interpreted as a return to pre-war conditions. Event tourism can support destination recognition, visitor expenditure, small-business activity, cultural revitalization, and infrastructure development, but its contribution depends on professional event management, security, accessibility, stakeholder coordination, environmental capacity, and continuity between individual events. Festivals are especially relevant because they can combine cultural heritage, creative industries, gastronomy, performance, community participation, and destination branding. The study proposes an event-development sequence based on strategic positioning, stakeholder coordination, fundraising, event packaging, complementary visitor experiences, destination branding, local creative participation, and an integrated regional events calendar. The findings support the use of event tourism as one component of regional recovery rather than as a stand-alone economic remedy.
Event tourism has become an established field of tourism research and professional practice. Planned events can motivate travel, influence destination image, create periods of concentrated visitor demand, and support wider strategies of urban and regional development. Getz defines event tourism from both demand and supply perspectives and emphasizes the strategic role of planned events in destination development and marketing [1]. Subsequent research by Getz and Page confirms that the field has expanded substantially and now encompasses the study of event experiences, destination portfolios, economic and social impacts, sustainability, management, policy, and legacy [2].
Festivals are particularly important within this field because they combine tourism consumption with local culture, public space, identity, creative production, and community participation. Their value cannot be reduced to ticket sales or immediate visitor expenditure. Research on festival tourism shows that festivals may contribute to sustainable local economic development, social value, community pride, and destination recognition, while the scale and distribution of these benefits depend on local circumstances and management choices [3], [4]. In this sense, festivals can serve simultaneously as tourism products, cultural institutions, branding mechanisms, and temporary concentrations of economic activity.
The Ukrainian context gives these issues additional urgency. Russia’s full-scale invasion has transformed mobility, infrastructure, security, investment, and tourism demand across the country. Tourism planning therefore takes place under conditions that are fundamentally different from those prevailing before 2022. The closure of Ukrainian airspace, destruction of infrastructure, occupation of territories, displacement of populations, and continuing security risks have sharply constrained inbound tourism and altered the geography of domestic travel. At the same time, tourism activity has not disappeared. Safer western and central regions have continued to receive domestic visitors, accommodation facilities remain active, and regional tourism tax revenues have recovered in many areas [5].
Event tourism should therefore be considered in relation to both wartime realities and future recovery. In the short term, large gatherings may be restricted by security requirements and emergency-response capacity. In the longer term, however, festivals, cultural events, sporting events, commemorative programs, gastronomic events, and creative-industry activities may contribute to the reconstruction of destination image, the revival of local businesses, and renewed domestic and international visitation. Ukrainian research has already identified the role of events in domestic tourism development, regional branding, and destination programming [6]–[9].
The purpose of this study is to identify the principal directions through which festivals and event tourism can contribute to the economic and tourism development of Ukrainian regions and to evaluate the conditions under which that contribution is likely to be sustainable. The study addresses four questions. First, what evidence of tourism-sector resilience can be identified in recent Ukrainian regional statistics? Second, through which mechanisms can planned events contribute to destination and regional development? Third, what risks limit the positive effects of event tourism? Fourth, which management actions are most relevant for developing a post-war regional event-tourism strategy?
The contribution of the article is therefore both analytical and applied. It integrates recent Ukrainian tourism indicators with established international event-tourism research, distinguishes direct evidence from strategic interpretation, and proposes a practical technology for event-tourism development that can be adapted by regional and local stakeholders. The article does not claim that event tourism alone can restore regional economies. Rather, it examines events as one component of a broader recovery strategy involving tourism infrastructure, cultural heritage, entrepreneurship, destination management, and community participation.
The theoretical foundation of event tourism is strongly associated with the work of Getz [1], who conceptualized planned events as a distinctive field of tourism demand, destination development, and professional management. His framework emphasizes the uniqueness of events as time-limited experiences and highlights the importance of event portfolios, destination strategy, and systematic evaluation. Getz and Page later extended this research agenda by reviewing the rapid growth of event-tourism scholarship and identifying new themes in sustainability, policy, event experience, social impacts, and strategic management [2].
A second strand of literature examines the role of events as strategic development instruments. Akhundova argues that events can function as catalysts for tourism development and destination attractiveness when they are professionally organized and connected to regional tourism objectives [10]. Event management is therefore not limited to operational delivery. It includes audience definition, logistics, branding, stakeholder coordination, risk management, marketing, and evaluation. Ukrainian management research likewise emphasizes the importance of planning and organizational coordination in tourism activities [11], while Surmanidze identifies professional competence, organizational capacity, time management, and digital systems as important contemporary challenges in event tourism [12].
A third research direction concerns the Ukrainian event-tourism market. Shelemetieva and Trokhymets analyze event tourism as a component of domestic tourism development in Ukraine and show the importance of regional and local events for stimulating domestic travel [6]. Vlasenko examines trends in event tourism in Ukraine and the Vinnytsia region, drawing attention to the regional-budget and destination-development implications of events [7]. Zhupnyk and Terletska focus on the Ivano-Frankivsk region and examine both positive and negative impacts of event tourism through the perspective of sustainable territorial development [8]. Papp and Boshota similarly emphasize the multidimensional contribution of event tourism to regional economies, small and medium-sized enterprises, investment, employment, and the social sphere [13].
These studies demonstrate that event tourism should not be evaluated only through visitor numbers. The host destination may experience effects on employment, local business turnover, public infrastructure, community identity, media visibility, environmental quality, and the use of cultural assets. O’Sullivan and Jackson show that festival tourism can contribute to sustainable local economic development, but that potential benefits are not automatically realized [3]. Mahadevan further demonstrates that the social worth of a regional festival may extend beyond direct economic impact and may include community recognition, wellbeing, and support for cultural talent [4]. This broader perspective is important for Ukrainian regions, where post-war tourism development will require both economic recovery and social reconstruction.
City-development research reaches similar conclusions. Kusumawati argues that events may support city development but that local-community impacts should remain central to event management and that direct cash injection alone does not guarantee transformation [14]. Radionova and Vlashchenko emphasize the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of events in the development of event tourism [15]. These contributions support a balanced assessment in which positive outcomes are weighed against congestion, price pressure, ecological impacts, seasonality, infrastructure overload, and unequal benefit distribution.
Mega-events constitute a specific part of the literature. Roche’s classic analysis of the 1991 Sheffield Universiade demonstrates that mega-event outcomes are shaped by urban policy, leadership, planning, and wider social context rather than by event scale alone [16]. This insight is relevant to Ukraine because future high-profile events will require careful alignment with security, infrastructure, public finance, and long-term destination objectives. Digital communication is another increasingly important factor. John, Tyagi, and Nadda examine the role of virtual media in event tourism and identify opportunities for participant engagement, promotion, and hybrid event experiences [17].
Finally, Ukrainian destination-branding research provides a direct connection between event programs and tourism promotion. Mykhailichenko, Kravtsov, and Zabaldina analyze brand-event programs in Ukrainian tourism and identify event resources, branding, destination attractiveness, and promotion as important elements of tourism development [9]. Taken together, the literature indicates that effective event tourism requires more than the organization of isolated festivals. It depends on event portfolios, destination strategy, management capacity, community involvement, marketing, infrastructure, and long-term evaluation.
The study uses a qualitative-dominant, descriptive-analytical research design. Its purpose is not to estimate a causal treatment effect of event tourism but to synthesize evidence on the conditions under which planned events may contribute to regional tourism and economic development in Ukraine. The analysis combines five complementary methods: literature review, classification, comparative synthesis, descriptive statistical analysis, and factor-oriented interpretation of event impacts.
The literature review covers international and Ukrainian research on event tourism, festival tourism, destination branding, regional development, event management, sustainability, and tourism under wartime conditions. Preference was given to peer-reviewed journal articles, established scholarly works, official government statistics, and institutional reports. Where bibliographic details could be verified, DOI information and official publication records were used to improve reference accuracy.
The empirical component relies on secondary aggregate data. Regional tourism-tax revenue figures are taken from Pavliuk’s analysis of Ukrainian tourism under wartime conditions [5]. Information on physical war damage is based on the Kyiv School of Economics infrastructure-damage assessment [18]. Accommodation indicators are drawn from statistical materials published by the Ministry for Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine [19]. These datasets describe the wider tourism environment; they do not isolate the causal contribution of festivals or individual events.
The analytical procedure has three stages. First, recent regional tourism indicators are examined to identify patterns of decline, resilience, and recovery. Second, established event-tourism frameworks are used to classify event types, management levels, and channels of regional impact. Third, the literature and Ukrainian cases are synthesized to formulate a practical event-tourism development sequence suitable for regional planning. Tables are used to make the descriptive evidence and conceptual classifications transparent.
Several limitations should be recognized. Regional fiscal indicators are affected by inflation, business registration, tax rules, enterprise relocation, and changes in tourism demand; they should not be interpreted as pure measures of visitor volume. Accommodation nights likewise measure only recorded stays and do not capture all forms of travel. The study does not provide an event-level input-output model, visitor-expenditure survey, or counterfactual estimate. Its conclusions concerning event tourism are therefore strategic and evidence-informed rather than causal.
Ukraine’s tourism industry has been profoundly affected by war, but the available evidence also indicates substantial regional adaptation. Pavliuk’s assessment describes a sector that experienced severe disruption after the pandemic and the beginning of the full-scale invasion, while also showing signs of recovery in safer regions and in domestic tourism [5]. War-related destruction must be described carefully. The Kyiv School of Economics estimated that the combined category of culture, tourism, and sports had sustained approximately US$3.1 billion in direct physical damage by the beginning of 2024; this figure should not be interpreted as a tourism-only loss estimate [18].
Table 1 presents regional tax revenues associated with the tourism industry for 2021–2024. The figures demonstrate a highly uneven spatial pattern. Several western and central regions exceeded their 2021 nominal revenue levels by 2024, whereas front-line and heavily affected regions remained substantially below pre-invasion values. The strongest nominal growth is visible in regions such as Zakarpattia, Kyiv, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Chernivtsi. By contrast, Luhansk, Kherson, Donetsk, and Zaporizhzhia show the continuing effect of occupation, military operations, infrastructure damage, and security constraints.
| Region | Years | 2024 in % to | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | |
| Vinnytsia | 27.4 | 23.9 | 29.9 | 41.3 | 150.7 | 172.8 | 138.1 |
| Volynska | 13.3 | 11.8 | 15.9 | 24.3 | 182.7 | 205.9 | 152.8 |
| Dnipropetrovsk | 98.4 | 69.5 | 98.1 | 128.8 | 130.9 | 185.3 | 131.3 |
| Donetsk | 59.6 | 18.8 | 8.8 | 14.5 | 24.3 | 77.1 | 164.8 |
| Zhytomyrska | 14.1 | 9.0 | 14.5 | 20.8 | 147.5 | 231.1 | 143.4 |
| Transcarpathian | 59.5 | 72.4 | 94.2 | 130.4 | 219.2 | 180.1 | 138.4 |
| Zaporizhzhia | 98.6 | 26.2 | 15.2 | 25.8 | 26.2 | 98.5 | 169.7 |
| Ivano- Frankivsk | 132 | 159.7 | 138.8 | 248.5 | 188.3 | 155.6 | 179.0 |
| Kyivska | 125.4 | 163.9 | 239 | 284.1 | 226.6 | 173.3 | 118.9 |
| Kirovohradska | 15.2 | 10.9 | 15.8 | 22.4 | 147.4 | 205.5 | 141.8 |
| Luhansk | 9.2 | 1.9 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 2.2 | 10.5 | 40.0 |
| Lvivska | 215.4 | 273.8 | 345.5 | 440.0 | 204.3 | 160.7 | 127.4 |
| Mykolaivska | 45.9 | 14.3 | 21.7 | 25.6 | 55.8 | 179.0 | 118.0 |
| Odesa | 210.8 | 87.6 | 98.8 | 160.5 | 76.1 | 183.2 | 162.4 |
| Poltava | 43.5 | 34.6 | 45.4 | 65.1 | 149.7 | 188.2 | 143.4 |
| Rivne | 16.2 | 14.1 | 20.1 | 31.5 | 194.4 | 223.4 | 156.7 |
| Sumy | 11.4 | 7.3 | 9.8 | 14.1 | 123.7 | 193.2 | 143.9 |
| Ternopil | 17.3 | 15.1 | 19.6 | 27.5 | 159.0 | 182.1 | 140.3 |
| Kharkiv | 104.8 | 38.9 | 49.6 | 47.7 | 45.5 | 122.6 | 96.2 |
| Kherson | 58.7 | 10.4 | 1.7 | 3.0 | 5.1 | 28.8 | 176.5 |
| Khmelnytskyi | 21.4 | 22.6 | 31.2 | 41.2 | 192.5 | 182.3 | 132.1 |
| Cherkasy | 23 | 17.4 | 20.7 | 34.2 | 148.7 | 196.6 | 165.2 |
| Chernivtsi | 18.2 | 20.7 | 28.8 | 39.1 | 214.8 | 188.9 | 135.8 |
| Chernihiv | 18.6 | 11.3 | 10.8 | 16.2 | 87.1 | 143.4 | 150.0 |
Source: Pavliuk [5].
These fiscal data should be interpreted as indicators of tourism-sector activity rather than direct evidence of event-tourism effectiveness. Nevertheless, they demonstrate that regional tourism economies have continued to operate and, in some locations, expand despite wartime disruption. This creates an institutional and market base on which future event-tourism programs can build.
Accommodation data provide a second perspective. According to the Ministry for Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine, recorded tourist nights have increased substantially in a number of major destinations. Table 2 summarizes the published values for selected regions and Kyiv. The total reported number of tourist nights across the listed destinations increased from 6.68 million in 2022 to 10.00 million in 2025. Particularly strong volumes are visible in Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk regions and in Kyiv, while Odesa, Kyiv region, and Zakarpattia also show marked growth.
| Region name | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lviv region | 2,366,460 | 2,157,613 | 2,096,388 | 2,251,605 |
| Ivano-Frankivsk region | 1,616,473 | 1,327,506 | 1,313,710 | 1,143,847 |
| Kyiv | 1,452,835 | 1,309,433 | 995,726 | 668,743 |
| Transcarpathian region | 936,186 | 719,521 | 739,433 | 692,017 |
| Dnipropetrovsk region | 433,868 | 435,444 | 464,091 | 285,035 |
| Kyiv region | 514,940 | 463,733 | 385,390 | 240,732 |
| Odesa region | 571,406 | 431,178 | 277,395 | 149,848 |
| Khmelnytskyi region | 277,650 | 251,439 | 217,391 | 159,861 |
| Poltava region | 228,668 | 208,965 | 212,575 | 169,701 |
| Together | 10,001,795 | 8,689,881 | 7,939,838 | 6,681,954 |
Source: Ministry for Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine [19].
The figures in Table 2 should not be interpreted as a complete national tourism census or as proof that wartime tourism has normalized. They do, however, indicate sustained accommodation demand in several regions and reinforce the argument that domestic tourism and safer destinations remain economically relevant. Event tourism may therefore be developed as an additional demand generator where security conditions permit.
A key planning requirement is to distinguish among event types. Getz’s framework identifies a broad planned-events sector that includes cultural celebrations, political and state events, business events, sporting events, religious events, and private events [1]. Table 3 adapts this logic to present a practical classification according to scale, content, and objectives.
The value of the classification in Table 3 is managerial rather than merely descriptive. Event scale determines security requirements, infrastructure needs, marketing reach, staffing, financing, and expected visitor volumes. Event content shapes audience motivation and the relationship to local cultural assets. Event objectives influence whether success should be measured primarily through revenue, participation, education, cultural transmission, destination image, or some combination of these outcomes.
| Reasons | Varieties |
|---|---|
| Scale | local; |
| regional; | |
| international; | |
| mega-events. | |
| Event content | cultural (holidays, festivals); |
| political and state (ceremonies, official holidays); | |
| business events (fairs, forums, exhibitions); | |
| sporting events (championships, olympiads); | |
| religious events (pilgrimage); | |
| private events (weddings, birthdays, anniversaries) | |
| Objectives of the event | commercial; |
| educational; | |
| humanitarian; | |
| cultural. |
Source: adapted from Getz [1].
Event portfolios should also distinguish between one-time local activities, regional events, recurring hallmark events, and mega-events. Table 4 summarizes the management implications of these levels. The central point is that the expected tourism demand and destination value increase as event scale and recognition grow, but management complexity, financial exposure, stakeholder dependence, and risk also increase [1], [2].
| Event level | Characteristics of event management |
|---|---|
| Local event (one-time or recurring) | low demands from tourists, reliance primarily on local staff, the beneficiary is the local community |
| Regional event (one-time or recurring) | average tourist demand or value, some events have potential to become a tourist destination direction or notable events, the beneficiary is the local community |
| Periodic landmark events | high tourist demand and high value for residents, co -branding, active involvement of the event management team |
| Periodic mega-events | high tourist demand, high image and brand value, catalyst for further development, beneficiary – event management team |
Source: adapted from Getz [1] and Getz and Page [2].
For Ukrainian regions, the portfolio approach is especially useful. Not every destination needs a mega-event, and pursuing very large events before transport, accommodation, emergency response, and destination-management capacity are ready may create more risk than value. A diversified regional portfolio can combine recurring local festivals, cultural weekends, gastronomic events, sports competitions, business events, and a smaller number of flagship events. Such diversification also reduces dependence on a single date or market segment.
The regional influence of event tourism can be organized into four broad mechanisms: visitor attraction, image development, animation of local cultural and public space, and catalytic economic effects. Table 5 summarizes these mechanisms. Attraction refers to the capacity to generate visitation and expenditure; image benefits concern recognition and branding; animation refers to cultural programming and resident participation; and catalytic effects include infrastructure use, entrepreneurship, social capital, and opportunities for longer-term development.
| Influence factor | Characteristics of impacts |
|---|---|
| Attraction | attracting the maximum number of tourists, economic benefit, grounds for further growth, marketing potential of the event, checking the correctness of the target audience selection, etc. |
| Image benefits | forming the image and brand of the event and its location, positioning the event in time and space, assessing the volume of the marketing niche, etc. |
| Animation factors | filling the event with cultural content, increasing attention to the location of the event, involving residents as participants and observers of the event, the need to ensure environmental requirements and sustainable development of the event site and the location as a whole. |
| Catalyst for economic growth | a powerful stimulus for urban and regional development, the event and its portfolio generate social capital, the community receives opportunities for sustainable growth. |
Source: authors’ synthesis based on the literature reviewed.
These mechanisms reinforce one another. A well-managed festival may attract visitors, generate media coverage, create demand for accommodation and food services, provide a market for local producers, and strengthen local identity. The same event may also create congestion, waste, price pressure, noise, and infrastructure overload. Accordingly, the assessment of event tourism must include both positive and negative effects.
Table 6 presents the principal social, economic, and ecological impacts identified in the literature. Positive effects include tourism flows, employment, investment, cultural preservation, education, social cohesion, and environmental attention. Potential negative effects include crowding, price increases, short-lived gains, social differentiation, resource pressure, congestion, waste, and ecosystem disturbance [15].
The balance between these effects depends heavily on management quality. Events are temporary, but their consequences may extend beyond the event period. Infrastructure investments, destination image, business networks, visitor memories, and community attitudes may persist. Conversely, environmental damage or resident dissatisfaction can also create long-term costs. This is why event evaluation should include not only attendance and immediate revenue but also resident experience, environmental performance, business participation, repeat visitation, media visibility, and post-event legacy.
Festivals are particularly suitable for regional event strategies because they can be developed around cultural resources that already exist locally. Ukrainian regions possess strong potential in music, theatre, crafts, gastronomy, religious heritage, Cossack traditions, folk culture, historical commemoration, and creative industries. Before the full-scale invasion, regions such as Kherson, Ivano-Frankivsk, Vinnytsia, Zaporizhzhia, and major urban destinations had established recognizable event calendars. Ukrainian research documents the role of such programming in domestic tourism and regional branding [6]–[9].
| Factor | Positive impact | Negative impact |
|---|---|---|
| Social | strengthening social cohesion, local identity, development of education, restoration and protection of cultural monuments | periodic overload of infrastructure, social differentiation of the population, negative influence of the media |
| Economic | increase in tourist flows, growth in opportunities for the development of tourism and the economy of the region as a whole, increased investment in the tourism industry, creation of additional jobs | increased prices for goods and services, short-term profit from the event, rising real estate prices, overload of resources due to periodic increases in demand |
| Ecological | increased attention to environmental problems, development of infrastructure based on the principles of environmental sustainability, preservation of ecologically significant areas, development of abandoned areas | contamination of territories during the event, increased demand for natural resources, traffic congestion, and destruction of ecosystems. |
Source: adapted from Radionova and Vlashchenko [15].
However, wartime security fundamentally changes the operational environment. Widely advertised gatherings may create unacceptable risks in particular locations or periods. Event development during martial law must therefore be subordinate to official security requirements, shelter capacity, emergency planning, air-raid procedures, crowd management, and the instructions of state and local authorities. The strategic importance of event tourism lies partly in preparing destinations, event concepts, partnerships, brands, and calendars for the period when conditions permit larger-scale implementation.
The results support the interpretation of event tourism as a regional-development instrument whose effectiveness depends on context rather than event existence alone. Getz and Page emphasize that events should be understood as part of destination systems and portfolios rather than isolated attractions [2]. For Ukraine, this perspective is particularly important because post-war recovery will be geographically uneven. Some destinations may be capable of rapidly reactivating visitor economies, whereas others will first require reconstruction of transport, utilities, accommodation, cultural assets, and public space.
The first implication concerns economic multiplier effects. Festivals and events generate direct demand for accommodation, food, transport, entertainment, retail, and local services, but the magnitude of the regional benefit depends on leakage and local supply capacity. If visitors purchase locally produced goods and services and event organizers use local suppliers, a larger share of expenditure remains in the region. If specialized services are imported from outside, the local multiplier is smaller. O’Sullivan and Jackson therefore caution that the sustainable local-development potential of festivals is not automatically realized [3]. Mahadevan further shows that the value of a festival may extend beyond measurable visitor spending to social worth, community recognition, and support for local talent [4].
The second implication concerns destination image. Event tourism can give potential visitors a concrete reason to choose a destination at a particular time. Brand-event programs are therefore especially relevant where a region possesses cultural or historical resources but lacks strong international recognition. Ukrainian research on event programs highlights the relationship between event resources, destination branding, and the formation of tourism products [9]. A recurring event can accumulate recognition over time, creating associations between the event and the host region. This is more difficult when events are irregular, poorly documented, or disconnected from a wider destination identity.
The third implication is the importance of community participation. Events created exclusively for visitors may generate resistance if residents experience congestion and disruption without visible benefit. By contrast, festivals rooted in local culture can reinforce identity and social participation while also attracting tourists. Papp and Boshota emphasize the multidimensional relationship between event tourism and regional social and economic development [13]. Event planning should therefore include local cultural organizations, businesses, residents, educational institutions, municipal authorities, and tourism organizations from the beginning rather than treating the community as a passive host.
The fourth implication concerns sustainability. Table 6 demonstrates that the same event can generate both benefits and costs. Environmental pressure is particularly important for destinations with sensitive natural resources, limited waste-management capacity, or transport bottlenecks. Social sustainability also requires attention to affordability, resident access, cultural authenticity, and the commercialization of local traditions. Sustainability should therefore be integrated into event design rather than evaluated only after problems emerge.
The fifth implication concerns professional management. Surmanidze identifies skills and organizational capacity as persistent challenges within event tourism [12]. Effective event delivery requires budgeting, logistics, safety planning, digital communication, procurement, volunteer management, sponsorship, programming, stakeholder coordination, and evaluation. The professionalization of regional event management should therefore be treated as part of tourism-policy development. Training programs can involve universities, tourism organizations, municipalities, cultural institutions, and private event companies.
Mega-events require an even higher level of caution. Roche’s analysis of the Sheffield Universiade demonstrates that urban leadership, planning processes, and social context shape mega-event outcomes [16]. Ukraine’s future participation in large international events should therefore be based on rigorous feasibility assessment rather than symbolic ambition alone. Capital investment should have uses beyond the event, financial exposure should be transparent, and event infrastructure should contribute to long-term regional objectives.
Digital and virtual media should also be integrated into event strategy. John, Tyagi, and Nadda show that virtual media can expand engagement and create new possibilities for event tourism [17]. For Ukrainian destinations, digital channels can sustain audience relationships even when physical attendance is constrained. Streaming, digital exhibitions, multilingual promotion, online ticketing, mobile itineraries, social-media storytelling, and virtual destination content can maintain visibility and build future demand. Digital promotion is especially valuable for diaspora audiences and international partners.
Based on the empirical and conceptual findings, the following technology is proposed for regional event-tourism development in Ukraine:
The proposed sequence is compatible with the strategic regional-development approach advocated by Papp and Boshota [13] and with Ukrainian destination-branding research [9]. It also reflects the wider event-tourism literature, which increasingly emphasizes portfolios, sustainability, community outcomes, and long-term legacy rather than attendance alone [2].
Festivals and event tourism can contribute meaningfully to regional tourism and economic development, but their effects are conditional on management quality, destination capacity, security, stakeholder coordination, and the extent to which visitor expenditure and cultural value remain connected to the host community. The Ukrainian evidence examined in this study indicates that tourism activity has remained resilient in several regions despite the severe disruption of war. Regional tourism-tax revenues and accommodation indicators show renewed activity in safer destinations, although the recovery is uneven and should not be interpreted as full normalization.
The study’s first research question concerned the recoverable evidence of tourism-sector resilience. The regional indicators demonstrate strong nominal recovery in a number of western and central regions, while front-line and occupied regions continue to experience major losses. This spatial divergence means that event-tourism strategies must be region-specific. A uniform national model would not adequately reflect differences in security, infrastructure, visitor demand, accommodation supply, and cultural resources.
The second question concerned the mechanisms through which events contribute to development. The analysis identified four principal mechanisms: visitor attraction and expenditure, destination image and branding, animation of cultural and public space, and catalytic effects on entrepreneurship, infrastructure, and social capital. Festivals are particularly effective in combining these mechanisms because they can mobilize cultural heritage, gastronomy, performance, crafts, creative industries, and community participation within a recognizable tourism product.
The third question concerned risk. Event tourism can create congestion, environmental pressure, price increases, temporary infrastructure overload, social tension, and short-lived economic gains. The existence of these risks does not negate the value of event tourism, but it means that event success cannot be evaluated through attendance figures alone. Sustainable planning requires environmental controls, resident participation, transparent financing, realistic visitor-capacity assessment, and mechanisms for distributing benefits locally.
The fourth question concerned management priorities. The study proposes a regional development sequence based on strategic event selection, integrated promotion, diversified financing, event packaging, complementary tourism experiences, destination branding, participation of local creative industries, regional event calendars, security planning, and systematic evaluation. These measures can help transform isolated events into a coherent event portfolio and connect festivals to broader destination-development objectives.
For post-war Ukraine, the principal value of event tourism lies in its capacity to combine economic recovery with cultural visibility and community renewal. It should not be treated as a substitute for infrastructure reconstruction, investment, transport connectivity, or wider tourism policy. Instead, event tourism can operate as a complementary development instrument that gives destinations reasons to visit, supports local enterprises, renews public cultural life, and strengthens regional identity. Future research should move from aggregate regional indicators to event-level visitor surveys, expenditure analysis, resident-impact studies, environmental monitoring, and longitudinal evaluation of recurring festivals.
Y.K., L.M., O.D., V.V. and M.K. contributed equally to the conceptualisation, methodology, literature review, data interpretation, preparation of tables, manuscript drafting, and review and editing. All authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript.
This research received no external funding.
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
All data analysed in this study are derived from publicly available statistical, institutional, and scholarly sources cited in the manuscript. No new primary dataset was generated.
Ethical approval and informed consent were not required because the study is based exclusively on published literature and publicly available aggregate secondary data and did not involve human participants, identifiable personal information, or experimental interventions.
