Mariupol-based VEZHA non-governmental organization has commissioned PPV Knowledge Networks a study of Christmas markets’ organizational and financial models.  

Urban markets, esp. Christmas markets, have become ubiquous in European towns and cities, incl. Ukrainian ones. Dozen thousands of visitors attend annual Christmas markets in Kyiv and Lviv. Smaller towns are setting up their own markets, e.g. Mariupol organized its first Christmas market in 2017. Christmas market is an effective local economic development instrument encompassing local community management, SME development, tourism promotion, urban planning, culture and community building.

Yet hosting a Christmas market requires hard choices from local authorities, e.g. to what extend a town should finance the Christmas market or if the local authority should organize the market itself or seek a private partner. PPV Knowledge Networks’ analysts have studied various organizational and financial models of Christmas markets in Ukraine and have developed recommendations specifically for the case of city of Mariupol.

The public version of the study (available only in Ukrainian) presents major findings of the study, incl. models and cases of Christmas markets in Lviv and Chernivtsi. The public report should be of help to Ukrainian local authorities that are either exploring an idea of setting up a Christmas market or that have a tradition of hosting the Christmas market. The report will point to suitable organizational and financial models as well as associated risks.

The study has been commissioned within the USAID-funded project Ukrainian Confidence Building Initiative II.