Science Days at WUNU: an international seminar hosted by the University of Brescia
To mark Science Days at WUNU, an international academic and practical seminar entitled ‘Planning and Managing Tourist Destinations in Times of Crisis: The Case of Ukraine: Between Development, War and Regeneration”, organised by Olena Motuzenko, Associate Professor at the Department of International Relations and Diplomacy of the B. Havrylyshyn Education and Research Institute of International Relations, as part of her role as a visiting professor at the University of Brescia.
The event was co-organised by the Deputy Mayor of Brescia for Urban Planning, Professor Marcella Tiboni. The seminar was held as part of the Master’s programme in ‘Environmental and Territorial Engineering’ and focused on contemporary approaches to the planning and management of tourist destinations in the context of military challenges and post-war territorial regeneration.
The academic discussion focused on the integration of spatial planning and tourism development, the use of digital spatial analysis tools (GIS), and the development of food and wine tourism, heritage tourism, solidarity tourism and volunteer tourism as tools for territorial sustainability and social cohesion within communities.
During her presentation, Olena Motuzenko outlined Ukraine’s experience of transforming tourist destinations in wartime, highlighting the role of tourism in the processes of territorial recovery, the formation of local identity and the development of international cooperation.
Yevhen Samoilenko, Deputy Director of the Department, Head of the Tourism Division of the Kyiv Regional State Administration and a member of the Boryspil District Council, also took part in the seminar. Speaking online, he shared the Kyiv region's practical experience in developing tourist destinations, creating memorial routes and implementing regional initiatives in the areas of territorial resilience and post-war recovery.
The event served as an important platform for fostering academic cooperation between West Ukrainian National University and the University of Brescia, as well as for presenting Ukraine’s experience in the field of territorial development and crisis management in tourist destinations to the international academic community.
