After 33 years of telling the world to stay away, Ukraine’s government is now planning to turn the 18-mile diameter ‘exclusion zone’ around the 1986 nuclear plant explosion into a tourist mecca.
While guides have offered illegal tours of the area for years, interest has risen sharply since an HBO mini-series on the disaster last year, and traffic has grown, with guides advising customers to wear radiation badges to avoid too much exposure. The area’s abandoned buildings, including an amusement park, have become a center of macabre ‘dark tourism.’
Now, according to Pres. Volodymyr Zelensky, “Chernobyl has been a negative part of Ukraine’s brand. The time has come to change this.” He signed a decree on July 10 that will lead to construction of walking trails and waterways, mobile phone system upgrades and an end to filming restrictions lifted. No doubt we’ll now see ‘glowing’ reviews from visitors…
