Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has caused unrest.

Western sanctions and corporate actions meant that Russian credit cards did not work, forcing tourists to scramble for cash to pay restaurant and hotel bills. As the ruble plummeted, Russian vacationers invited friends to share their luxury villas and split the costs. Many cut their trips short to avoid being stranded when Aeroflot, Russia’s biggest airline, suspended nearly all international flights in early March. Those who have canceled hotel reservations.

The war in Ukraine is hitting global tourism just as the industry tries to recover from a two-year defeat during the pandemic. The recovery has already been slowed by uneven travel barriers in Asia, including Japan and, especially, China, which pre-pandemic accounted for 17% of global international tourism spending, double that of the United States. Now, sun-drenched Mediterranean countries like Turkey, Cyprus and Egypt, which once catered to Russia’s middle class, as well as Russian favorites in Asia including Thailand and Vietnam, are expecting little business from the country this year.

The impact goes beyond these destinations. The war drove up oil prices, making travel everywhere more expensive. Because Western planes are banned from Russian airspace, some trips take much longer. A Finnish airline has revived a Cold War route to Japan that passes through the North Pole, adding three hours to the journey from Helsinki. Airfares for international travel to Europe were down 7% in the two weeks ending March 9, compared with the previous two weeks, according to data from travel consultancy ForwardKeys. He excluded Russia, Ukraine and Belarus from the analysis, suggesting foreign travelers are more hesitant to travel to Europe.

The war “deals a blow to a still slow and uneven recovery”, said Sandra Carvao, director of trade intelligence and competitiveness at the United Nations World Tourism Organization.

Before the pandemic, Russians made 45 million trips abroad each year, buying jewelry and coats in Cypriot boutiques and lounging with beer on Vietnamese beaches. Many countries value Russian tourists as they tend to travel for long periods of time. In Vietnam, Russians spend more than visitors to any other major market, in part because they stay longer than two weeks on average.

“There are no other nationalities or other tourists who could come and occupy these villas,” said Ramon Ferrari, a Swiss resident of Thailand who rents high-end vacation homes on the tropical island of Phuket. to a clientele that in the months before the war was skewed 70% by Russians. He said visitors from China, Japan and Hong Kong were still missing and there was no enough tourists from other wealthy countries visiting Phuket.

In 2019, China accounted for more than a quarter of Thailand’s 40 million tourist arrivals. In the first two months of 2022, 8,000 Chinese tourists visited Thailand, less than the number of Swedish tourists. Local business owners are hoping the end of major travel restrictions in Australia and Singapore will provide a boost, but the overall recovery remains uncertain.

“We still don’t see large-scale mass tourism anywhere near the numbers we expected,” said Bill Barnett, managing director of C9 Hotelworks, a Thailand-based hospitality consultancy.

Hotel owners in Cyprus, where Russians typically make up a fifth of tourists, are preparing for the worst. The European Union has banned Russian planes from flying to the EU, including Cyprus.

Thanos Michaelides, chief executive of Thanos Hotels & Resorts, a luxury hotel group on the Mediterranean island, said Russians typically make up around 30% of its customers but have stopped booking for the summer. Even if the war were to end in the coming weeks, a weakened ruble would likely prevent many Russians from taking lavish vacations, he said. Mr Michaelides is using digital advertising to attract potential German and French travellers, although he says it will be difficult to fully replace his lost Russian customers.

In the Maldives, Russians accounted for 16% of arrivals in the first two months of 2022, more than any other country, and tripled Russia’s share in 2019. In February, three direct flights brought around 700 Russian tourists to the island daily. The war reduced that number to around 300, according to official data.

“Tourism wants a healthy world, a peaceful world,” Abdulla Mausoom, the archipelago’s tourism minister, said in an interview. “We have been hit very hard as Russia and Ukraine together account for almost 20% of our market share.”

On the Indonesian island of Bali, where the government scrapped mandatory quarantine requirements for tourists in early March, local business owners say they have yet to see a significant increase in visitor numbers. Around 20,000 foreign passengers have landed at Bali’s international airport this year, about 1.5% of total international visitor arrivals in the first three months of 2019. Ketut Purna, a Balinese business owner with two spas on the island, said he felt the absence of Russian tourists. “If they stay in Bali for 15 days, at least they go to the spa for more than 10 days,” he said.

Denis Kondratev, a model and fitness trainer from St. Petersburg, Russia, who has lived in Bali for two years, said he pays for his purchases by converting rubles into cryptocurrency, which some sellers in Bali exchange for rupees Indonesian. Instead of planning short trips, he said, some Russians are looking to relocate rather than live in Russia.

“Now it’s not about vacation anymore,” he said. “It’s a matter of expatriate life.”

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