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Budapest and several Hungarian spa towns, including Hévíz and Lake Balaton, will suffer a lack of Russian tourists, according to InfoRádió’s tourism expert Richárd Róbert Kiss. Also, the annual report of the Hungarian Hotel and Restaurant Association shows that in December alone, Russian and Ukrainian tourists were among the ten most important nationalities of visitors in the domestic sector. From Russia alone and just in December, 48,000 overnight stays were recorded in the country.
This article was originally published on our sister-site, Ungarn Heute.
The sanctions against Russia and the war are already seriously affecting the tourism companies of various countries, said a tourism expert from InfoRádió. It also seems that travel agencies dealing with Russia have not yet canceled their trips after the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war, hoping that they can be kept.
The tourism expert also pointed out that the number of Russian tourists in Hungary, including Budapest, had increased immediately before the crisis, but that this was also true for other European and overseas destinations in general. With the imposing of sanctions, it is clear that air tourism will come to a virtual standstill, as the European Union will not allow Russian flights, which
will be a serious loss for all countries for which Russian tourism plays an important role.”
According to Richárd Kiss, before the pandemic Russia was among the top ten countries from where tourists were coming to Budapest, so tourism in Hungarian resorts such as Hévíz was largely dominated by Russian visitors. “We are affected by the closure of airspace, as are Italian and Spanish resorts,” he said.
President of the Hungarian Hotel and Restaurant Association (MSZÉSZ), Csaba Baldauf, pointed out that the Russian-Ukrainian war has increased gas procurement costs by another 30 percent, which were already several times more expensive last year, raising hotel overhead costs to unbearable levels. The difficult situation is exacerbated by inflation and the weakening of the forint, the expert told Hvg.hu.
Rural resorts where Russian and Ukrainian tourists make up a large part of the turnover, are in an even more difficult situation than on average.”
In addition to Hévíz, Hajdúszoboszló is suffering significant losses due to the absence of Russian tourists, and the town, like the eastern Hungarian town of Nyíregyháza, has been affected by the alleged decline in Polish inbound tourism, which used to play a major role in the region.
Featured photo illustration via Pixabay