One major attraction for travelers for quite some time is, the appeal of tours that speak to their innate sense of adventure. So much so that these tours are now a standard part of tourism agencies and boards across the globe. But one proposed adventure tour has generated a whirlwind of discussion, and not entirely in a positive manner.
The Megapolis Kurort, a travel agency based out of Moscow, Russia, has made public a new adventure tour that will take people through the strife-laden frontier of eastern Ukraine. The months-long conflict that pitted the Ukraine against Russia and pro-Russian separatists has only recently cooled off thanks to a cease-fire that was negotiated. The Megapolis Kurort tour looks to take participants directly into the self-determined republics of Luhansk and Donetsk, the main areas where the fighting has been at its most bitter. Travelers will embark on a four day tour of the regions via tanks, accompanied by a swath of bodyguards selected from a security company. The cost per person for this tour is somewhere in the range of $2,000 to $3,000. In reports gleaned from the Russian newspaper Izvestiya, there are already ten people who have expressed interest in taking the tour. However, Anatoly Aronov, co-manager of the tourism firm has stated they will do so ‘at their own risk.’
Photo Courtesy of www.mondonews.ro
Tanks are not an uncommon part of tourism in Eastern Europe; in fact, the Ukraine has benefitted greatly from incorporating the military vehicles into their efforts to draw visitors in. Specifically, there is at least one daily tour associated with a hostel that will let you take a Soviet tank driving course. But this latest move comes as a shock to many. Megapolis Kurort has mainly been regarded as a travel agency offering vacations centered on health and well-being. The most pressing factor is a question of whether this latest cease-fire agreement will hold; there was one that took place this past September that crumbled as the new year began. And so far, the official estimate of lives lost in eastern Ukraine stand at more than 5,000. There is no further word on when the tour will set out.
