The war conflict between Russia and Ukraine "is not a positive scenario" after the "very encouraging news" of recovery that the Spanish tourism sector had because it was overcoming the ómicron variant, according to the Alliance for Tourism Excellence Exceltur.
However, its executive vice president, José Luis Zoreda, pointed out this Thursday, in statements to Efe, that it is very difficult at this time to anticipate the consequences of the war in Ukraine, although if it becomes a destabilizing element in Europe it could affect tourism demand, he added.
"Undoubtedly, it is not positive at all because from Easter onwards, we have more encouraging news every day that not only are reservations recovering, but even the figures for 2019 can be exceeded," he said.
In addition, if among the measures imposed by the European Union against Russia could be not letting Russians leave or come to Europe, in Spain could be affected especially Catalonia, where the Russian market made in 2019, before the pandemic, 50% of its hotel overnight stays in our country, he warned.
Zoreda recalled that, in 2019, around 1.3 million Russian tourists arrived in Spain, leaving around 1.4 billion euros of spending in our country.
Although it is still too early to measure the consequences of this conflict, if any, if it is short, it may not have too much impact on tourism demand, but it will have an impact on energy costs that will rise and also on the specific demand of the Russian market towards Spain.
In his opinion, "any energy surcharge will probably have to be assumed by companies against their margins because it is not a scenario, even if it calms down, to raise prices, so as not to discourage demand."
In addition, the conflict could incorporate new uncertainties that make the recovery of employment and, therefore, the extension of temporary employment regulation files (ERTE) become essential again, if this affects tourism in the short term, he warned.
In his opinion, if demand suffers, Spain will have to continue to keep the ERTE alive as it had them for the covid-19 pandemic.
The extension of one month of the ERTE, which the Government has just approved, "if it was already short without the conflict in Ukraine, now with this reason -although we hope that the solution will be quick-, it would be advisable to rethink it," he said.
Exceltur fears that the war in Ukraine will affect the recovery of tourism
It foresees as first effects that energy costs will rise and the specific demand of the Russian market towards Spain will be affected
