Chernobyl Tourism is Booming Thanks to HBO’s Limited Series

It looks like Portugal is no longer the hottest tourist destination in Europe. That honor now falls to… Chernobyl? According to Reuters, the success of HBO’s limited series Chernobyl has sparked a massive uptick in travel bookings to the Ukrainian town, home to one of the most devastating nuclear explosion in history. Reuters reports that multiple tour agencies have experienced a 40% rise in bookings since Chernobyl first premiered on May 6, and local agencies expect tourism to continue to flourish throughout the summer. I’m not sure who watches HBO’s intensely graphic series and says, “Yep, I have to go see that radiation firsthand,” but good for the Ukrainian tourism industry, I guess.

Chernobyl recounts the horrific 1986 explosion that claimed the lives of more than 30 people, largely due to radiation poisoning as a result of the blast. The government declared an “exclusion zone” spanning 18 miles around the site, and in 2010, that area was finally opened to tourists, giving visitors a chance to check out the post-apocalyptic wasteland for themselves. According to Reuters, agencies have been running Chernobyl tours since the zone opened to tourism, but the success of HBO’s drama has changed the game, blowing the industry (no pun intended) right open.

SoloEast tours director Sergiy Ivanchuk told Reuters that bookings have risen by 30% compared to May 2018, and reservations for June, July, and August have increased by 40% since Chernobyl premiered. Another local tour director, Yaroslav Yemelianenko of Chernobyl Tour, reported a similar phenomenon: he expects bookings to increase 30-40% because of the limited series. To specifically appeal to HBO fans, Chernobyl Tour offers a guided look at some of the locations presented in the series, such as the bunker where local officials decided not to evacuate citizens.

On the tour, disaster tourists enter the Chernobyl zone and visit the nearby town of Pripyat, home to an abandoned, irradiated amusement park. They are also taken to reactor number four — the nuclear reactor that caused the explosion — which is now covered by a metal New Safe Confinement (NSC) structure. While all of this is safe for visitors (the Ukrainian government wouldn’t have opened the exclusion zone otherwise), the Chernobyl Tour website is clear that tourists shouldn’t extend their stay. “Of course, the Zone in its central part still has places with elevated radiation, and we definitely would NOT recommend you staying at them for a long time,” reads the site. “However, if you follow the suggested route and the guides’ directions, your visit to the Chernobyl zone will be absolutely radiation-safe.”

Stick with us, kid, we’ll go places where there’s just the right amount of radiation!

Chernobyl is now available to stream on HBO. You can even stream it on your flight to Kiev.

Watch Chernobyl on HBO