EMVA-36 in the penultimate training module continues to work actively on real strategic projects, which will be the basis of the master's projects of participants. The Kyiv-Mohyla Business School has the following practice: kmbs graduates present their junior colleagues with interesting cases on which they once defended successful master's projects.

Currently, the participants of EMVA-36 were visited by the head of the Community NGO Arina Satovska, graduate of the Executive MBA (EMBA-33), to share her experience of master's research and tell how the project has changed after defense and implementation.

Arina Satovska's project is related to a new concept of green tourism, which is mainly aimed at developing and supporting the local community.

Mini-houses combine the standards of the Hotel and the comfort of a country house cottage. Hotel (brand "hutel b&b") — a mobile home of 16 square meters. Meters with solar panels on the roof. It is designed for a family of four traveling with pets. This environmentally conscious family prefers not to harm nature during the holidays.

In a recent interview with kmbs CHANGE stories, Arina Satovska spoke about her business model, which she wants to scale:

"The most obvious way to build accommodation is traditional: buy land and build hotels. But this is an old model with typical risks: high capital and fixed costs, no flexibility, and scaling difficulty. I carefully studied the Airbnb business model as a typical case of sharing economy. This successful company, despite the pandemic, makes a profit not from owning real estate but through a partner model. We have followed a similar path and are now developing partnerships with local families ready to work together to create value for the client in the "green" tourism paradigm. For example, they have a vacant plot of land in a picturesque place but do not know how to monetize it. We deliver to the site and equip a mobile eco-cottage, establishing business processes and standards, including service, environmental friendliness, and inclusiveness.

The stake in this project is still not for a family in love with country eco-recreation. The local partner — the landowner on which the Hotel can stand — is a critical client in Satovska's project. In this way, you can create a holistic, sustainable tourism product, thereby helping the development of the community — through clustering, in particular.

Today, the Hotel is in test mode: one house in Oster, Chernihiv region, has received guests since last fall.

In work on the project and since the defense of the master's project — told the participants of EMVA-36 Arina Satovska — "Hotel" has undergone many changes, including changes in the brand. These transformations are primarily related to changes in the context.

Satovska's project aims to develop the tourist north of Ukraine, exclusively in suburban locations. Chernihiv region has a high potential for tourism and natural areas. Kyiv can reach it quickly and easily, but it is still unattractive to tourists due to the lack of infrastructure and local businesses. Another missing element is added in the current context: the state border is nearby.

Global trends also influence the dynamics of the project in tourism. Because of the pandemic, people have changed their travel demands and their leisure patterns in general. Sustainable tourism has gained additional importance in confronting over-tourism and the development of regenerative tourism. Self-organized tourism has become a trend, and post-covid travel to Ukraine is slowly becoming a forced step.

In the end (as it emerged from the exciting story of Arina Satovska), the changes in her project during the implementation period were not so significant and concerned only the operational level; strategic things did not change. Nevertheless, when working on the master's project, the idea changed more than once — at the level of the client dimension, mission, value proposition, strategy, and funding mechanism. This should be the correct order: to do as much as possible for your project while studying at kmbs, — said the school graduate.