The Tustan Fortress is the main tourist attraction in Urych, which harmoniously combines history, nature and culture. Impressive landscapes, Boyko architecture and the nature of the Skole Beskids National Nature Park attract up to 200,000 tourists every year. Today, it is one of the most popular historical sites in Ukraine in terms of the number of visitors.
Tustan has become a success story, proving that even in a forgotten corner of Ukraine, it is possible to create a world-class tourist destination. Below I will share the key stages of this journey - our steps to success.
10 key steps to Tustan's success
1. Strong vision: envisioning the future
The development of Tustan has always been seen as part of the holistic ecosystem of the village of Urych, which includes natural, cultural, social and economic components. From the very beginning, we realised that we could not achieve success without an overall strategy. Therefore, we have developed a clear vision of how Tustan should develop as an integrated ecosystem.
It was this vision that allowed us to set priorities, plan infrastructure projects and unite the community around a common goal. The fact that Urych is among the world's 55 most prominent tourist villages means that the hypothesis for Tustan's development was correct and the strategy is really working.
2. Infrastructure breakthrough
In 2019, we made a big leap forward in infrastructure development. In cooperation with the central, regional and local authorities, we built roads, installed electricity and the Internet in Urych. This not only increased the comfort for tourists, but also improved the lives of local residents. The constant flow of visitors allows us to maintain infrastructure and develop. This, in turn, helps us to take care of the heritage in a sustainable way.
3. Sustainable tourism: fostering a culture of responsibility
We wanted to create not just a flow of tourists, but a community of responsible travellers. Through educational events, information campaigns and excursions, we fostered respect for nature, history and culture.
We have equipped a special space for trade - a ‘marketplace’. It is a modern and aesthetically pleasing platform where local entrepreneurs can sell their goods. Thanks to this, both the community and tourists supported the initiative.
‘We are guided by the principles of sustainable tourism - the kind of tourism that will work for the benefit of visitors, the community and the state for many years to come, not just a couple of seasons. This requires systematic work. It requires a sustainable territory, responsible tourists, and sustainable businesses (institutions). This is what we focused on when developing our creative products.
4. Working with the local community
One of the key tasks we faced at the beginning of the project was to ensure successful interaction between the Tustan team, the local community of Urych, the reserve, local businesses and the authorities. It's all about strong horizontal interaction, which is sorely lacking in Ukraine in all areas.
In particular, the development of Tustan would not have been possible without the active participation of the community. In general, one of the important emphases of heritage tourism is respect for the local community. We trained local people in crafts, tourism and entrepreneurship so that they could develop their own businesses in the Tustan ecosystem. We also create jobs, generate a steady stream of tourists and bring them abroad to learn from our experience. We helped the community develop a taste for the right services.
Today, at least 70 people work every day in the reserve, museums, and tourist services (food, souvenirs and trade, overnight stays in farmsteads). Not only have people stopped leaving the village, but they have started to return. They used to go to Drohobych, Boryslav, Skhidnytsya. Now, on the contrary, heritage tourism attracts visitors. We were the ones who launched a number of communities and horizontal connections in Urych. Perhaps this is our greatest success. And the community in this case is a story about growing up, about these horizontal connections.
Yes, not everything is perfect yet, and there is still a lack of compliance by all participants, but we are working on it. In any case, the transformation of interaction between all stakeholders over the years is impressive.
5. Protecting the heritage
Our team has worked hard to preserve the natural, historically shaped landscape and comply with zoning regulations, as well as to prevent illegal construction. To preserve the natural and cultural heritage of Urych, we developed a master plan for the village in 2021. This document regulates development, identifies areas for landscape preservation and develops the aesthetic harmony of the village. Nowhere else in Ukraine is there such a detailed prescription at the zoning level, and unfortunately, there is no protection of cultural landscapes.
Now the main issue is that everyone should adhere to the master plan. All the issues related to the development of Tustan are enshrined in this plan - where and what can be built and where it is strictly forbidden, where and how the village will develop, and where it is important to preserve its authentic appearance.
In 2010, we already stopped the illegal construction of a high-rise building near Tustan. In 2020, we also had a case that we fought with - when the cadastre illegally seized land in the reserve. Fortunately, we managed to defend the land.
We are proud not only of what we have created, but also of what is not here, what we have prevented. Not everyone is aware of this, because it is invisible and not obvious.
6. Tu Stan! festival: a unique cultural product
Since 2006, we have held the Tu Stan! festival of medieval culture every year. This is the largest festival in Ukraine, which we reformatted in 2022 for obvious reasons - to win.
The historical festival has become an important element of tourism development, attracting thousands of visitors and supporting local trade. Since 2006, the festival has raised a whole generation of adults. A conscious generation that was shaped by our festivals about knights, Ukraine, and heroism - before and after the Maydan.
7. Digitalisation: VR and mobile app
We have worked hard to ensure that people visiting Tustan come to us not as a transit destination, but on purpose. Starting in 2019, we radically changed our approach to communication. Somewhere in that period, we had a better understanding of who our target audience was and which channels were best for communicating with them.
We developed a mobile app, audio guide and digitalised routes to improve the tourist experience. The app shows a 3D model of the fortress on the rocks, and VR glasses allow you to walk inside the fortress and visit each of its rooms in a realistic way. This allows visitors to see what Tustan looked like in the Middle Ages and makes the tour even more interesting. In general, our product is an opportunity to come, visit the museum, the local church, see the fortress and rocks, and imagine how everything looked many years ago using VR and AR technologies.
8. Preserving authenticity
All projects in Urych are carried out with due regard to the preservation of the historical and natural environment. We prevented chaotic development and supported the restoration of the local church, making it part of the tourist route. For example, a few decades ago, a metal plaque was hung on the church, which later began to spoil its facade. We persuaded the community to remove the tin and return the church to its original appearance.
We always keep the aesthetic aspect in focus - you won't see chaotic shopping arbours or a bunch of plastic buildings in Urych. The local church, souvenir stands under the rocks, authentic village houses - all of this coexists organically with nature.
9. Initiatives during the war
During the war, our partners and I created the Ukrainian Heritage Monitoring Lab (НеМо) initiative to document the loss of cultural heritage due to the war and support museums. We document the extent of the destruction, digitise museum collections, and create a database with information about the objects we have studied. All this for the sake of further recovery and justice.
Now HeMo is a coalition of professional institutions that carries out these tasks with the NGO Tustan as the operator. In fact, HeMo has grown out of Tustan to some extent, which became its prototype and source of digital skills and a carrier of contacts. Together with a law firm, we created the Raphael Lemkin Society to prove the fact of Russia's cultural genocide. After all, all the materials we produce are being prepared for an international court.
10. International recognition and further ambitions
The fact that Urych was included in the list of the best tourist villages in the world is not only recognition, but also inspiration for new achievements. We believe that Tustan deserves to be included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. As of 2022, the UNESCO World Heritage List includes 1154 sites from 167 countries. And I am sure that Tustan is worthy of this list, given its uniqueness, construction technologies, and precision of creation. This is our next step, which we are already actively preparing.
Looking to the future
Tustan is the first Ukrainian case where a viable village ecosystem has been created around a historical monument. We were told: ‘This is impossible in Ukraine!’. But we had an ambition to show Ukraine that it is possible to do this and that we can do it, and that others can do it too. To build our own universe from scratch. Tustan's success story shows that even the most daring ideas can be realised and combine heritage preservation, tourism and economic development.