Local Investment and National Competitiveness (LINC)

THE SMELL OF HOPE AND THE SMILES OF HOSPITALITY

On June 18 and July 13, 2010, in Yevpatoria, Crimea, USAID LINC and the Crimean Tatar cultural and ethnographic center Odun Bazaar Qapusi presented new ethnographic tours to representatives from the Crimean tourism industry and media.

The Firewood Market Gate

In brief, the presentations included an excursion to the Firewood Market Gate’s museum, an engagement ceremony show in ethno-café, and a pilaf cooking master class in the ethnographic restaurant Ceval. The goal of the events was to draw attention to the cultural diversity of the Crimean peninsula, and how it could be utilized as a unique tourist product.

The presentation events attracted attention from media people and industry professionals

The background, however, is centuries-long, going back to the late 1500s, when the Ottomans constructed the fortress of Kezlev, the city we call today Yevpatoria.

The Gate

One of the fortress wall’s gates, which led to a firewood market, survived 400 years, standing up to many wars and sieges but falling to the Communist regime: in September 1959, fifteen years after the deportation of Crimean Tatars on a false allegation of collaborating with Nazis, the tower was leveled within one night as a “ramshackle structure that interferes with street traffic.”

Dilyara Yakubova, Odun Bazaar Qapusi Director: “The primary objective of what we do is to advocate our culture, from the smiles of our employees to our food. Every detail is a story about who we are, why we are like that, in what we differ from others, and in what we are similar to others”

In 2003, a family of Crimean Tatars, who had returned to their homeland after the exile in Uzbekistan, and two of their friends started a project of restoring the Firewood Market Gate (Odun Bazaar Qapusi in the Crimean Tatar language). The restoration, carried out exclusively at these people’s expense, took four years.

“It was an act of gratitude to our parents, our land for giving us birth, and gratitude to the Most High for giving us a possibility to earn,” says Dilyara Yakubova, director of the Odun Bazaar Qapusi Cultural and Ethnographic Center. “We didn’t have even an idea of creating anything inside the gate tower.”

The model of medieval Kezlev in the Firewood Market Gate’s museum is one of Ukraine’s largest

The Business

“From the very beginning and until recently it was not a business at all, and now it’s not just a business but a very profitable one,” Ms. Yakubova said.

The business presently consists of the Firewood Market Gate – the tower giving roof to the museum of Kezlev and the ethno-café – two more outdoor cafés near the tower, and the restaurant Ceval. The ethnographic tours also include excursions of the “Little Jerusalem” – seven temples of different faiths within a mile from the gate.

According to Ms. Yakubova, the Odun Bazaar Qapusi center has already created approximately 100 jobs and is going to expand – build a hotel.

What cannot go unnoticed about the staff are their smiles – hearty and hospitable, and not fawning. “We hire those who can smile,” says Ms. Yakubova. “We tell them that a day without smile will equal to a no-show.”

Participants in the engagement ceremony show are not idle viewers but actors

With a “Little” Help from USAID

The USAID Local Investment and National Competitiveness project (LINC) helps enhance the competitiveness of Crimea’s tourism sector, considering it a key one of the peninsula’s economy. Among other things, the project assists in developing and promoting new tourist products, and in establishing market links between partners in the industry.

Evgenia Malikova, USAID Office of Economic Growth Project Management Specialist: “I’d like to applaud the private initiative that has created all this beauty”

As for the ethnographic tours, USAID LINC helped not only organize and fund the presentations. It also helped determine prices for various groups, develop model agreements, conditions and schemes for cooperation with tourist agencies, tour operators and excursion bureaus, develop programs of the tours, and develop a promotional campaign plan.

Ms. Yakubova thanked USAID LINC for bringing the journalists and tourism industry professionals, and said it was only through the project’s assistance that the events of that scale happened early in the season.

“We have been interacting with USAID LINC for half a year now, which is a very pleasant experience. The workshops they conduct are very educational and allow us to learn what we didn’t know and perfect what we do,” Ms. Yakubova said.

Afterword

The first page of the ethno-café’s menu is a loose-leaf with the verse “How the Homeland Smells” by Crimean Tatar poet and journalist Lilâ Bucurova. Ms. Yakubova says that customers often take it home, and the necessity to insert new loose-leaves makes her happy.

The last line of the verse reads: “My Homeland smells of hope.”