Members of the Union of Ukrainian Entrepreneurs (SUP) visited Aquavita Event as part of a Company Visit. The company has been organizing business travel and MICE events for more than 30 years.
Anatolii Yurkov, Co-owner of Aquavita Event, explained how the company manages the entire travel and event organization cycle — from logistics, accommodation, and catering to technical support, translation, and excursion programs. This allows businesses to focus on their own tasks rather than on the details of the trip.
A travel agency becomes part of a company’s operational infrastructure rather than simply acting as an intermediary. It enables businesses to maintain control over the process when they need to arrange more than 10 business trips per month, organize international travel, or coordinate 50+ travelers while providing 24/7 support.
A MICE agency manages more complex processes, combining the coordination of 1,000 people from different countries and offering companies the opportunity to work with one responsible partner rather than dozens of contractors.
Business Transformation in Response to Disruption
Transformations usually begin with disruption. For Aquavita Event, that moment came in 2020, when travel around the world came to a standstill. However, the company’s diversified operations allowed it to redirect its work and retain its team.
Arthur Korotchuk, Director of Aquavita Event, explained how the company adapted to uncertainty, sharing cases that required particularly careful preparation and coordination.
At a time when air travel around the world had been suspended, the company focused on maritime routes and logistics for its clients, primarily members of ship crews. As early as May 2020, the first sailor from Ukraine was sent on a flight to join a crew in the Strait of Gibraltar. After obtaining all the necessary permits, Aquavita Event worked with people stranded in quarantine on ships — arranging their transportation, taking them home, and organizing more than 30 charter flights to different countries in total.
It was during this period that the online format emerged. When offline events became impossible due to the pandemic, Aquavita Event organized a hybrid conference for a pharmaceutical company: conference halls were booked simultaneously in five Ukrainian cities, full technical support was provided, and the event was streamed simultaneously on the client’s website. This made it possible to bring together 650 participants.
Prepared for the Full-Scale War in Advance
2022 became the second transformational experience. Within a few hours, the very infrastructure on which business travel had been built disappeared.
However, the company had prepared in advance: server capacity abroad, backup banking, a work location in western Ukraine, and some employees working from abroad. In the first days of the full-scale invasion, the company managed to evacuate people from Kyiv and continue meeting its commitments to clients.
Under conditions for which existing systems had not been designed, human connection proved to be the most important factor. At Aquavita Event, the team identified the key principles of a resilient operating model. Speed became more important than perfection — decisions were made within minutes, without days of approvals. And thanks to decentralization, the team was able to act without instructions from above.
Charity Should Be a Separate, Systematic Area of Business
When operations came to a halt in 2022, the Aquavita Event team focused on volunteering, which later developed into a separate area of the business.
“We have delivered more than 300 vehicles to the Security and Defense Forces of Ukraine, as well as more than 60 ambulances. We invite you to join our projects and help us do even more through our joint efforts,” emphasized Anatolii Yurkov.
The Ukrainian Business Travel Market: Facts and Forecasts
Over the past six years, client expectations of business travel have changed dramatically. Before COVID-19, the focus was primarily on booking tickets, accommodation and arranging transfers. Today, Aquavita Event provides the full travel or conference cycle, including backup solutions, security, coordination, rapid response, and financial reporting. Logistics have become more complex, and clients now primarily demand expert knowledge — they are buying control over uncertainty.
Ukraine’s airspace remains closed, meaning ground and combined logistics continue to form the backbone of business travel. MICE formats for Ukrainian companies have already shifted toward hybrid formats and events held abroad. According to Aquavita Event’s forecast, traveler safety will become a core responsibility of the travel partner. MICE will ultimately split into two tracks: events inside the country focused on safety and representative events abroad. And even the reopening of Ukrainian airspace will not return business travel to the way it was in 2021.
A crisis tests not the product but the operating model — those who change and adapt their model are the ones who continue to develop. Today, client trust is built not on a promise of stability, but on a proven ability to act in its absence. Clients are buying not only a product, but confidence in the outcome.
“Unpredictability is not going anywhere. The question is how prepared your operating model will be,” Arthur Korotchuk concluded.
We thank the Aquavita Event team for their hospitality, insightful cases, and the time that participants were able to spend together, connect with one another, and gain a closer look at the business travel processes.
