Was Tour to Chernobyl Zone so popular before the release of the HBO series? Of course yes, but not as much as after. Tour operators asked their tourists about the motives of the trip, and some have already answered that they booked a Chernobyl tour after watching the trailer for the series.
What motivates everyone to visit Chernobyl? First of all, this is an interest in something unusual and forbidden. Some people visit this place to get adrenaline. Although, this is not entirely correct. The purpose of the tour to Chernobyl zone is to show people what a ‘peaceful atom’ can create in its incorrect human use.
Who wants to go to Chernobyl? Firstly, people who want to see with their own eyes the consequences of the largest nuclear disaster in history, and what is happening at the station now. Secondly, those who want to see how people lived in the Soviet Union. And, finally, tourists whose goal is simply to say: 'I was here' and to show off to friends on Instagram photos with the sarcophagus in the background.
What danger awaits tourists in the restricted area?
Now it is quite safe in the zone. If you do not live there permanently, do not eat food grown on this land, do not climb trees and do not touch any piece of iron, everything will be in order. The level of radiation that a person receives there per day is about the same as if you go to a fluorography. So questions like ‘Can you go to Chernobyl?’ go into the distant past.
The sarcophagus is shown to tourists quite close – the observation deck is located 200 m away, which is quite safe. Dangerous during Chernobyl tour can be:
• It is dangerous to go to the Belarusian forests, in the direction where the wind was blowing after the accident. Since no one brought echelons of land there, they did not concretize, and it is clear that there are areas heavily contaminated with radiation.
• Gradual destruction of buildings. And if at the time of destruction, you are in a brick building with reinforced concrete floors, there is practically no chance of surviving. That is why now it’s forbidden for tourists to go into some buildings.
‘Trips to Chernobyl’ agency offers many kinds of tours, which range from the private to group tours, from the one-day tour to 5-days tour. Chernobyl tours cost from 35 euros. It's up to you to decide whether it's expensive or not. But it is impossible to decide without visiting it. Ukrainian Chernobyl tour evokes an apocalyptic atmosphere that causes fear and further interest at the same time.