War in Ukraine replaces pandemic
In an article for Deutsche Welle journalist Marco Müller at how tourism is being affected by the war in Ukraine, replacing the pandemic as a vacation constraint in Europe. Tourists may be avoiding travel in Central and Eastern Europe, especially to the countries bordering Ukraine.
After two years of the pandemic, many hoped for a vacation. Yet in view of the war, is it possible to travel to the Baltic countries or Ukraine’s immediate neighbours, such as Poland, Hungary or Slovakia? “There is nothing working against it,” says Samed Kizgin, a travel security expert working for A3M Global monitoring, a company that assesses the safety for tour operators and internationally active companies traveling to certain areas. Germany’s Foreign Office, for example, hasn’t issued a travel warning, he points out. At most, refugee flows could lead to restrictions in certain areas, so the question is simply whether one chooses to travel to neighbouring countries or not.
The number of tourists in Central and Eastern Europe, like elsewhere in the world, has declined significantly in the past two years due to the pandemic. Geopolitical tension is also a factor for Ukraine’s neighbours and tourism in the region has been hobbled for years because the Ukraine conflict has been brewing for a long time.
Vacationing in Europe usually brings to mind Southern European countries, including Spain, France and Italy. Central and Eastern Europe fall slightly behind them, but are still popular with tourists. Hungary and the Czech Republic are in demand when it comes to wellness stays and city breaks. Poland is known for its cities like Krakow and Warsaw and villages on the Baltic Sea coast. Romania and Bulgaria, meanwhile, attract beach-loving tourists due to their location on the Black Sea. The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the North, which border Russia and Belarus, tend to appeal to those who prefer sweeping landscapes and quiet towns with plenty of options for hiking and biking.
According to the European statistics office Eurostat, around 900,000 tourists came to Hungary and Poland in the summer months of 2019. In 2020, the countries saw about one third of the visitors they had in the previous year, and 2021 was also lagging. Although there was pre-pandemic growth in the Chinese market, it completely collapsed, according to Konrad Guldon, head of the Polish Tourist Office in Berlin.
Once pandemic restrictions were reduced earlier this year, uncertainty set in again with the war in Ukraine. It is too early to predict whether people will cancel their travel plans as a result.
In Poland, while refugees from Ukraine are also being accommodated in hotels and guesthouses, it does not affect the resorts that are usually booked by German or other foreign guests. The popular vacation regions do not share a border with Ukraine: these include the Baltic Sea coast, the Krkonoše Mountains and the Hirschberg Valley.
Anke Budde, vice president of Germany’s Federal Association of the Alliance of Independent Travel Entrepreneurs, senses that people have stopped making bookings. Many people are preoccupied with the war or engaged in volunteer work, so the idea of vacation feels far away.
The increasing price of raw materials is also a factor. With heating and gasoline costs going up, people thus have less money available.
