Poroshenko wants to see about 30 mln foreign tourists come to Ukraine every year

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says he wants to increase the share of tourism in the country's economy and attract about 30 million foreign tourists to Ukraine every year due to better tourism opportunities in the capital and the regions.

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"The world's average share of tourism is 10% of GDP, we still have 1.5%. My goal and my task is to increase the number of tourists who visit Ukraine to 30 million [per year] in the next five years, and not only at the expense of megacities that have already become very popular tourist destinations," he said at Dragon Capital's 15th Annual Ukraine Investor Conference.

"I want Ukraine to have no 'periphery' so that foreign and Ukrainian tourists could learn how beautiful our country is," Poroshenko said.

The active development of the tourism industry will improve living standards in Ukraine, he said.

According to the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, 6.2 million foreign tourists visited Ukraine in the first half of 2018, which was 1.7% down year-over-year.

In the first half of 2018, the flow of visitors from Italy, Germany, the United States and France increased, but the number of tourists from neighboring countries, namely Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, decreased.

The ministry also reported that about 17 million Ukrainians traveled abroad in the first half of 2018.