The award was presented at the Congress of the East European Initiative in the Polish city of Lublin that evaluated best projects of cross-border cooperation. Lviv won the award for tourism with its Development of Tourist Information Infrastructure project that involved creating three tourist information centers (at 1 Rynok Square, the main railway station, and the airport) and erecting signposts with transliterated place names and translated information for independent travelers. Vasyl Kosiv, the deputy city mayor for cultural affairs told The Day it was the first infrastructure project implemented by the Ukrainian side as part of the cross-border cooperation program. Kosiv says: “Lviv’s signposting network is well-understood and easy to use for a European tourist, since all visitors to the city know what to expect and feel we care about them and welcome them here.” At the same time, the tourist information centers provide visitors with extensive information about the city, its history, places to eat, coming events, transport connections and so on. Importantly, all employees of these centers speak English, while Polish, German, Italian, and Portuguese speakers are also available. According to the deputy mayor, officials from many Ukrainian cities come to Lviv to learn from its experience of opening tourist information centers.
