With the 35th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster having recently passed, interest in the site is growing as a tourist destination, according to an article in Reuters. From a ninety minute flight with Ukraine International Airlines over Chernobyl and the surrounding area, to attempts by the government of the Ukraine to have it declared a World Heritage site, the opportunities to learn about the April 1986 disaster are being rapidly expanded.
Says Viktor Kozlov, a Ukrainian nuclear agency worker who took part in one of the flights, to Reuters, ”I was surprised by the nature around the plant. It looks so pure, nature won over a human here.” According to Reuters, the country is considering an application to UNESCO to make Chernobyl a World Heritage Site. “Hoping that such an assignation could mean more funding and more tourists, the government has begun a process that could eventually allow it to apply to the United Nations’ cultural, scientific and education body for protection,” reported Reuters.
Of the boosted interest in Chernobyl and the resulting tourism, pilot Yevhen Nechyporenko, “It attracts people like a magnet. Also by looking at these places from above, you imagine yourself there.”
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