The mobile application "Tourist card" will work with cards of any Ukrainian bank and will allow to save money when choosing and paying for trips around the country, collect points both for transactions and visited places and pay for new trips. PrivatBank technologies will become a platform for the new service and every resident of the country will be able to take part in a nationwide loyalty program for tourists.
“Thanks to its infrastructure and technological resources, PrivatBank provides new unique services for its own customers as well as for the public sector and the entire banking market. Today, together with our partners, we have created a comprehensive digital platform for tourism development and communication between travel businesses and travelers, with the opportunity of online-booking and paying for services by cards issued by any Ukrainian bank," said Oleksandr Shlapak, Chairman of the PrivatBank Board. “Thanks to a new online service, tourists are able to organise trips in a few clicks; find information about interesting activities, routes and sights; purchase tours and excursions as well as automatically become participants in the national loyalty program "Tourist of Ukraine".
Stepan Kubiv, First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, said that today more than 15 million people go on fascinating trips around Ukraine annually. The national tourist loyalty program "Tourist of Ukraine" will be aimed at attracting the maximum number of people who travel around the country as tourists or for business purposes by selling tourist services (transportation, accommodation, meals, excursions, entertainment, etc) via the new mobile application.
This is a partner co-branding loyalty program that will be operated by the Association "National Tourist Organisation of Ukraine" created by the initiative of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade and aimed at consolidating regional tourism organisations as well as the travel business sector. Key partners of the project are PrivatBank and VISA. The program enables incorporation of other potential partners: carriers (Ukraine International Airlines, Ukrainian Railroads, Autolux, Uber), hotel chains (Premier Hotels, Intercontinental, Reikartz), network travel operators and agents, insurance companies, mobile operators, gas station networks, restaurants, clubs, museums, etc.
In the future, the Ukrainian "Tourist card" will also be available to foreign guests in Ukraine. Participation of VISA will allow to use advanced technologies for instant payments for goods and services in Ukraine.
“The "Tourist of Ukraine" program is an important step in the development of infrastructure, including for payments, in Ukraine’s regions. Domestic tourism is extremely promising for the country as a whole and the popularity of regions among tourists is the key to the development of small and medium-sized businesses which in turn have great potential for the development of the national economy. VISA is happy to be a partner of this project and also provides modern payment solutions to ensure high rates of payment infrastructure development and promote popularity of fast and convenient payments for tourist services", said Dmytro Krepak, VISA regional manager in Ukraine, Georgia and Armenia.
