Thousands of Russian tourists are stranded in Southeast Asian resorts as return flights are canceled and amid growing concerns that the war in Ukraine will hamper the regional economy’s recovery from the pandemic.

The Philippines, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand recently reopened to vaccinated travelers and Indonesia and Vietnam are preparing to welcome visitors again this month, in a bid to revive a tourism industry that has been decimated. by two years of border closures and Covid-19 restrictions.

With lucrative Chinese tour groups still under pandemic rules, expectations had been set on the important Russian market to fill the void, but the invasion of Ukraine, which has driven up prices of oil, flight bans and sanctions, quickly put an end to these hopes.

“It’s going to be a really uncertain time for an industry that just wasn’t recovering yet. It was definitely a setback,” said Gary Bowerman, a travel analyst based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

“Southeast Asia is just at the beginning of its reopening process, and it needs as many tourists as possible, especially without the Chinese market, that’s the big overlay,” he said. declared. “The overall outlook is much bleaker than a month ago.”

The fallout is already being felt in tourism-dependent hotspots like Bali and in Thai resorts. In 2019, Thailand welcomed 1.4 million Russian visitors, and in 2021 Russia was in the top three tourist groups by nationality, after the United States and Germany.

In January, Thailand had about 23,760 Russians, out of 133,903 total arrivals, according to tourism ministry figures.