Abstract
Military tourism has attracted the attention of the increasing number of people as a tool to attract economic revitalization, cultural education and peace building in post-conflict regions. First, while applied successfully to stable countries, the existing research lacks investigation regarding systematic development of military tourism in actively recovering conflict regions like Donetsk and Luhansk of Ukraine. Therefore, this study fills the gap by using a multidisciplinary approach combining historical and comparative-geographical methodologies and marketing research with a synergetic theoretical framework to study the feasibility and design of military tours. Using military tourism as a structure, we show that if designed with safety, authenticity, and community involvement, military tourism can turn waraffected landscapes into vibrant historical memory and economic development centers. Results indicate positive correlations between the development of military tourism and regional development if ethical, psychological and environmental factors are taken into account. The study’s implications underlined the need for planned tourism policies that should try to distinguish between historical preservation and goals of sustainable development, providing a replicable model for other post conflict societies.