Members of the tourism and hospitality business in the Zaporizhzhya region of Ukraine recently gathered for a conference on the ‘Development of tourism attractiveness of the region through improving the efficiency of SME activities in the HoReCa sector. The event was organized by the Business Support Centre of Zaporizhzhya with the support of the EBRD within the framework of the EU4Business initiative of the European Union.
A tourism development programme was recently presented in Zaporizhzhya, but successful development of the tourism industry is difficult to imagine without a developed modern hospitality and catering infrastructure, the conference heard. This business line, united by a single term HoReCa (standing for Hotel / Restaurant / Café) was the main topic of the conference.
The sphere of hospitality determines the development of many related industries: the production of equipment for hotels and restaurants, manufacturing of work clothes, cleaning, and so on. The two-day conference was intended to promote the competitiveness of enterprises in the sector, the development of the network of hotel-restaurant infrastructure in the region, and to increase managerial competences among personnel.
The conference was attended by EBRD representatives, as well as experts from related EU-funded projects in the region, and brought together 25 speakers - successful restaurateurs and hoteliers from Kyiv, Lviv, Odessa, but also Italy and Turkey.
Among other things, participants learned about current trends and creative innovations in the industry, ways to improve the efficiency of their institution, organising a successful advertising campaign, staff selection and other important issues for the successful activity of hotel and restaurant businesses.
The Zaporizhzhya Business Support Centre is part of the EU-funded Network of Business Support Centres, which aims to improve the competitiveness and bankability of Ukrainian SMEs through the provision of business advice and capacity building. It also supports BSOs in 15 regions of Ukraine in setting up a network of EU4Business Business Support Centres (BSCs). At least 30,000 SMEs and entrepreneurs will benefit from the project.