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Skift Take
Good morning from Skift. It’s Thursday, March 3, in New York City. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.
Today’s edition of Skift’s daily podcast focuses on the markets that are missing Ukrainian and Russian tourists, an oligarch’s departure from TUI Group, and the good smells that can make a hotel distinctive.
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Episode Notes
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has prompted more than 30 destinations worldwide to close their airspace to Russian aircraft and drove numerous nations to issue sanctions that have enormously complicated travel since the start of the war, especially from Russia and Ukraine. Those sanctions have created an enormous layer of uncertainty for destinations heavily dependent on travelers from those two huge sources of outbound travel, creating a layer of uncertainty for several countries during their post-Covid recovery, writes Global Tourism Reporter Lebawit Lily Girma.
Russian travelers took more than 40 million trips in 2019 and ranked sixth among the highest international visitor spending globally. Girma writes that travelers from Russian and Ukraine had gotten back on the road in large numbers as soon as destinations reopened to them and eased entry, adding that tourism economies were banking this year on the huge influx of Russian visitors and a surge of Ukrainian tourists.
However, the closure of the Russian and Ukrainian outbound markets is hitting some destinations hard as well as forcing others to revamp their strategies. Girma writes, for example, the war has made travel to the Dominican Republic difficult and could hit the country’s tourism industry hard as travelers from both Ukraine and Russia tend to spend more than the average visitor from Latin America or other Caribbean locations. Meanwhile, a tourism official from the Maldives said the value of Russia’s currently taking a serious nosedive has made travel to the Indian Ocean nation enormously expensive for prospective Russian visitors.
We turn next to a major shakeup at the TUI Group, the world’s largest tour operator. The company’s largest shareholder, Russian billionaire Alexey Mordashov, resigned from its supervisory board Wednesday after the European Union issued economic sanctions against him three days earlier, reports Executive Editor Dennis Schaal.
European Union officials have said that Mordashov, who has issued numerous statements in support of Russian president Vladimir Putin, has benefited from his stake in a favorite bank of government officials. In addition, Mordashov’s steel company holds media interests that the European Union says suppresses free flow of information and undermines Ukraine.
As a result of the sanctions, Mordashov’s equity in TUI, the world’s largest travel operator, will be frozen and he loses the right to any shareholder dividends. Howefully, Mordashov, who had served on TUI’s supervisory board since 2016, will still remain a 34 percent shareholder, the company’s largest.
Finally, Contributor Carley Thornell explores a step that numerous hotels are taking to differentiate themselves from their rivals. What exactly? Several hotel companies, she reports, are customizing the scents in their properties to appeal to prospective guests.
Thornell writes appealing to the sense of smell — closely linked to memory and emotion — can be a powerful way for hotel brands to remain in the forefront of travelers’ minds. But while some properties feature one signature scent, such as the smell of White Tea appearing prominently in several Marriott-owned hotels, others — including numerous Hyatt-run properties have curated different scents for each part of the building.
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