Chernobyl Exclusion Zone Sees Record Number of Visitors

In the first eight months of 2019, the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone experienced a record number of visitors, according to the website Segodnya. During this period, 74,671 people visited the zone, with 14,416 of those visitors coming in August alone.

The majority of tourists are arriving from Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and Poland. Representatives from the Exclusion Zone attribute the increase in tourist flow to the airing of the HBO miniseries titled ‘Chernobyl,’ the establishment of new tour routes by Ukrainian travel agencies, and the simplification of access procedures to the Chernobyl zone.

“We must remember that Chernobyl is not an amusement park; it is an area where special safety rules must be observed,” noted Kirill Garnik, the assistant director of the Exclusion Zone.

On July 10, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree amending the rules for staying in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, allowing it to open its doors to tourists and lifting the ban on filming within the area. An economic project implementation program is currently in the planning phase for the region. On the day of the document's signing, a new protective sarcophagus was also put into operation over the destroyed No. 4 reactor.

The Chernobyl nuclear disaster occurred in 1986.