On the eve of the International Museum Day, a large-scale tourism and museum forum was held at the Poltava Mykola Lysenko Professional College of Arts, attended by representatives of the Poltava Regional Military Administration, local authorities, academic staff of higher education institutions in Poltava, employees of state museum institutions, and representatives of local communities in Poltava region.
During the panel discussions, scientists and practitioners discussed topical issues of mental health preservation through tourism and museum activities, shared effective cases of experience gained and issues of regional tourism development, analysed the profiles of the basic network of cultural institutions in Poltava, and teachers from Poltava universities that train specialists in the field of tourism, tourism and recreation spoke about the benefits of obtaining the necessary professional competencies in the tourism industry.
The forum participants were greeted by Anton Chubenko, Deputy Head of the Poltava Regional Military Administration, Oleksandr Lemeshko, First Deputy Chairman of the Poltava Regional Council, and Iryna Udovychenko, Director of the Department of Culture and Tourism of the Poltava Regional Military Administration, who stressed the importance of promoting the tourist and museum heritage of Poltava region and expressed their sincere gratitude to the staff of museums and tourist offices for their hard work. The best workers in the museum sector of Poltava region were awarded diplomas from the Poltava Regional Military Administration, the Department of Culture and Tourism of the Poltava Regional Military Administration, and letters of thanks from the Poltava Regional Council.
The forum discussed the role of mental health in times of war, the specifics of training tourism professionals in the face of global change, the development of green rural tourism, and the priority of developing domestic tourism in Ukraine.
PhD in Economics, Associate Professor of Management and Logistics Department of National University "Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic" Alla Hlebova presented an interesting and constructive report "Peculiarities of Training Tourism Specialists in the Context of Global Changes". The scientist of the multidisciplinary classical university, where the seventh bachelor's degree program in “Tourism and Recreation” will soon be held, spoke at the first discussion panel of the forum, dedicated to the presentation of the opportunities of higher education institutions in Poltava.
The speaker began her speech with a statement by the founder of Advanter Group, Doctor of Economics, Professor Andrii Dligach: "Every educational project implemented during the war is a manifesto of our victory." According to the scientist, tourism is indeed an area that can become one of the priority areas for the development of the national economy.
"At our university, which has a two-century history, strong educational traditions of training various specialists, the direction of training tourism industry specialists is quite new - this year we will have only the seventh graduation of bachelors in the specialty "Tourism", within the field of "Tourism and Recreation". The peculiarity of our training is that we focus on the fact that tourism is a field that allows us to prepare a certain educational product that we can promote. Given the fact that many students and scientists come to us, and we host various events, there is a great demand for Ukraine and the Ukrainian product.
Tourism specialists cover many different areas in their professional activities. First of all, we are talking about convenience. When we come to the countryside, and when we are in the city, we always want to feel comfortable and full of life, so we take care of our own well-being.
Today, when we train students, we lack knowledge of Ukrainian literature, we lack Ukrainian products that students could use. When foreigners come, they immediately ask us to demonstrate a Ukrainian product, but the peculiarity and problem of today's tourism is that our product is in Ukrainian.
When we prepare students for our educational programs, we teach some of the specialized disciplines in English.
Today, we have a Science Museum on our campus, and our schoolchildren come to see it, and there is a great demand for something to play with, to make science an art of play and knowledge promotion. We also involve our future tourism specialists in the work at the Museum of Science to help them learn communication skills and network. By the way, the pandemic and the war have raised the issue of socialization, and many people are afraid to communicate, and the basis of tourism is communication," the scientist said.
Summing up her speech, the speaker also noted that at an innovative university of the European level, Poltava Polytechnic, within the Tourism and Recreation study program, the teachers emphasize that it is our youth who will create the product that will allow us to promote Ukraine and the services that we can present both when we are engaged in domestic tourism and when we enter the foreign tourist market.
"It is no coincidence that the higher education institutions in Poltava region are becoming tourist magnets, where schoolchildren and parents often come to when they want to decide on their future profession, scientists, practitioners, when specialized forums, congresses, etc. take place. We are glad to meet everyone who wants to promote the tourism industry and do their chosen activity at Poltava Polytechnic," Alla Hlebova summed up her speech.
In general, the rich program of the Tourism and Museum Forum included several sessions. During their speeches, scientists and practitioners talked about the peculiarities of promoting the tourism and museum profiles of Poltava, focusing on the key aspects of the development of the tourism and museum sphere in the conditions of difficult military and post-war challenges.
Recently, Polytechnic students took part in a photo contest promoting the unique tourist spots of Ukraine.
Earlier, the members of the student club travelled to little-known tourist locations in the country. The university students took part in the presentation of the new tourist route "Heroes' Memory Lives On", the members of the Euroclub presented their reports at the conference dedicated to the development of the national economy in the context of globalization, during the virtual trip the polytechnic students deepened their knowledge of tourist local history, and the members of the student club discussed the International Day for Women's Rights around the world.
Media center of
National University "Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic"
