A cruise passenger ship with foreign tourists will come from Romania to Izmail in the near future on a permanent basis. This was the result of successful cross-border cooperation between Ukraine and Romania in the field of tourism development.

Interestingly, this is the first project in a decade when the tourist flow is focused on visiting Izmail. Tourists will be in Ukraine for about three days. They will be able to learn more about history, culture, folklore, national cuisine and much more. An excursion to Odessa is also in the plans.

All this was planned and discussed back in 2019 at the I International Forum “Development of tourism in Ukrainian Danube ports, the path to economic growth in the region.” Then an important memorandum of cooperation was signed between the municipal institution of the Izmail City Council “Investment Promotion Bureau” and the Association for the Management of Tourism Destinations and Facilities of the Danube Delta (Romania). The president of this association, the head of the Romanian delegation, Catalin Cibuliac, spoke about the intention of the Romanian partners to include the city of Izmail in the routes of the passenger fleet that visits the Romanian Danube Delta.

The initiative to include Izmail in the route of Romanian cruises belonged to the city authorities and was fully supported by the Administration of the Izmail Seaport. And finally, in two years, we can say that the meeting and the signing of the memorandum will have the first results.

For several reasons, including the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the project was postponed. The first small groups of tourists during the tour visited the Romanian part of the cruise route in March, but the date of the call to Izmail was postponed three times due to quarantine restrictions. But, as Valentyn Stroya, director of the Investment Promotion Bureau, said, in the coming months (as soon as the epidemiological situation in Ukraine improves), the DIANA cruise ship with foreign tourists will visit the Izmail seaport.

Main photo: Mikhail Arkhipov