Juggling a successful business, children, a teaching job and a degree: meet Viktoria from Lviv

Author: YEA Kateryna Kurytsia

In a world full of injustice, challenges, and worries, it is important to find something that inspires you. It often happens that a hobby becomes a business. But owning a business is a big responsibility, especially in times of war. What is it like to run a business at such a  difficult time and how does one Ukrainian business woman manage to keep it going and even developing?

As a Young European Ambassador in Ukraine, I had the chance to interview a woman who successfully juggles running her agency, teaching at university, being a mother, and doing another degree, all at the same time!

Viktoria Kizyma is a founder of one of the top 100 travel agencies in Ukraine “LOYAL TOURISTIK”, an associate professor at the Faculty of Geography at the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, and a mother of two wonderful children.

During our meeting, we discussed important current issues, such as business in times of war, gender equality, and mental health.

Managing a business after the launch of the full-scale war against Ukraine

“I used to read in books that there were force majeure situations during a war, but now I can write a book about what is happening because tourism has changed completely!” Viktoria reflects on the transformations in business since the launch of the full-scale invasion against Ukraine and how it affected her own travel agency.

From our conversation, it emerged that there has been a drastic reorientation of the tourism market in Ukraine, mainly because many tour operators’ business was with russia. Such tour operators’ activity has been blocked during wartime, and this to certain extent influenced the broader travel market in Ukraine.

Today, only 10% of travel agencies continue to operate in Ukraine. And those that do have seen a significant change in bookings. For example, there is no longer such a thing as ‘hot tours’ – tours sold with discounts, within a limited period of time. Now, Viktoria has a ‘miracle system’ that pulls together all the operators from neighbouring countries so that when she needs to book a hotel or tour, she can choose where it will be most profitable to do so. Also, since the war broke out, 80% of all tourists from Ukraine are mothers with children, so advertising is mainly aimed at them, as well as at young people who may be travelling. 

The other major change is that traditional offices and in-person work with tour operators have almost disappeared, possibly because travel agents are saving on rent, so many tourism workers work remotely from home. This is a problem because it is clear that tourism has begun to recover, as people who were waiting for victory before taking a rest have realised that the victory will come not as quickly as they thought, and that they need to travel to restore their strength. Therefore, there has been an increase in demand for travel from the travel agencies, and they have started planning holidays en masse.

“By working from home, the managers relaxed, because cooking borsch with one hand and booking a tour with the other was not the same, so now they have to reorient themselves to come back to the office environment and work on the things they did before Covid,” says Viktoria. In terms of most popular bookings, bus tours take the top spot, accounting for around 70% of all bookings, as the skies are still closed and tourists mostly travel abroad by bus. As for the most popular destinations, European countries are now more in demand than before.

“If last year I said the tourism industry was on the verge of collapse, I can now confidently say that it is beginning to revive in the format that is currently possible,” says Viktoria Kizyma.

How to be a prosperous businesswoman and a mother at the same time?

In response to this question, Viktoria has no particular secret, as she believes it comes naturally.

“I never wanted to be a mummy-mummy because I understand that children are interested in communicating with a successful, developed mother. I have schedules and assistants, I can delegate some tasks to someone else and during that time I can spend time with my children and work can wait. University, I have always said, is charity work for me, so I share my knowledge with students to raise a generation that will know what I went through because nobody taught me, I tried all the things related to business myself, made mistakes myself and so on. That’s why teaching is important for me. I don’t know how long I’ll have enough inspiration, but for now, it’s like that,” Viktoria says.

She believes it is important to plan your time clearly, understand your plans and goals, as well as consider that sometimes children are also interested in coming to the office with their mum to see how things work. There are of course kindergartens for the younger ones and a school for the older children which help as well. 

“I am ready to give birth and open more offices because I feel that I can. To give birth to new Ukrainians, to educate new Ukrainians, students, etc., to help Ukrainians relax and rest – this is what I can do for my country.”

Is there discrimination in the tourism sphere?

“I wouldn’t say that there is discrimination in tourism, but for some reason tourism, if we talk about the travel agency and tour operator activities, is considered a female-oriented job,” says Viktoria, taking into account her many years of experience.

“If you look at management positions, there can be men, as well as guides, but if you look in general, tourism is quite broad, and if we talk about travel agencies, for some reason there are more women there. I have only had two guys in my career, one of whom later went to work for a tour operator company, and the other changed his field. For example, in the offices of tour operators and tour guides, there is no clear picture of the prevalence of a particular gender. Owners can very often be men, but also there are family businesses and I have examples of quite successful ones.” She wouldn’t say that there is discrimination in the tourism business, pointing rather to the diversity of the tourism sphere.

How to stay motivated and not burn out?

“I think that a human being is a creature that cannot be the same all his or her life, so he or she can be motivated for some time and burn out for some time, and that is normal,” says Viktoria. 

In tourism, burnouts are possible and very common, because if we talk about stress and the events that take place, then burnout occurs.

“You have to look for different interesting directions, develop what is interesting to you, and do what you like. In general, I believe that if you do what you love, you will never work a day in your life, as Confucius said. The main motivation is to find yourself and go to work as if it were a holiday. What am I doing for myself? I give myself time to burn out, and then I start reading, studying, thinking, and planning how to reorganise everything and start afresh. However, everyone has their recipe. And the most important thing is to remember that in order not to burn out, you need to rest, and this applies to all areas of life,“ advises Viktoria Kizyma. 

Thus, despite all of life’s difficulties, you should remain confident, move forward, explore yourself, and reach new heights. Women in business are a vivid example of complex stories, who believed in their strength and have not given up. Empowered women empower the world!