The mayor of Karlovy Vary announced the risk of closing the resort due to the outflow of tourists from Russia

The mayor of the Czech Karlovy Vary, Van Andrea Pfeffer-Ferklova, told the publication Actualne.czthat the city’s spa industry is on the verge of closing, including due to the outflow of tourists from Russia.

“The decline began after the annexation of Crimea in 2014. But the peak came with the coronavirus epidemic and the subsequent war in Ukraine. …If in pre-Covid 2019, Russians spent a total of 300,000 nights in Karlovy Vary hotels in the first three quarters, then in 2022 – only 10,000 for the same period,” said Ms. Pfeffer-Ferklova. If we do not find a new one (clientele – “b”), the spa industry as such will completely die

At the same time, the publication notes that in 2022, the largest number of tourists in history arrived in Karlovy Vary, especially from Germany. However, it was tourists from Russia who came to the city on multi-week sanatorium-and-spa tours. European tourists are coming in larger numbers than before, but tend to only stay in the city for weekends, according to a local guide.

According to the publication, a significant part of the historical center of the city belonged to the Russians. In particular, the widow of former Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, Elena Baturina, owned the Quisisana Palace hotel in Karlovy Vary. Now it doesn’t work.

The publication reports that the city’s leadership has been criticized for launching a Russian-language campaign to attract tourists. The original campaign slogan was “A city that understands you”, but the local authorities had to abandon it. According to the head of the municipal information center, Josef Dlogos, the campaign is aimed at Russians who have long lived in Western countries. “We, of course, do not support Russia. But the spa industry now cannot survive without the Russians,” concluded Mr. Dlogosh.

According to the estimates of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia, the number of trips of Russians to the sanatoriums of the Caucasian Mineralnye Vody increased by 18% in 2022.

From 12 September the European Union canceled simplified procedure for obtaining visas for Russians. On September 30, Finland closed the borders for tourists from Russia. Similar restrictions were introduced in Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Latvia and the Czech Republic.

Erdni Kagaltynov