Pre-crisis Situation

Russian tourists who visited the Balearic Islands:

• 2012: 105,000
• 2019 : 120,400
• 2020 : there were no Russian tourists
• 2021 : 6,265 [1]

The Russian market is eager to travel to the Balearic Islands which is among the top 3 destinations in Spain for the Russian. It is estimated that there are around 2,500 registered Russians living in the Balearic Islands.

Russian tourism market has a great economic impact as its average daily expenditure is 50% higher than that of the average tourist.

They are travellers who extend their stays over 10 days (between 12 and 14 days, when the average foreign tourist stays is 7-8 days).

Their presence is quite high outside the high season

More than half of them come to the islands through a package tour and around 85% choose to stay in hotels.

Impact of the War

The outlook for this year was very positive and it was expected a new boost in Russian tourism in Spain. Last September, the Russian Executive authorized new air routes with Spain and up to August a total of 123,184 air seats had been scheduled between Russia and Spanish airports[2].

The invasion of Ukraine has caused all these positive prospects to collapse and Russian citizens to rethink tourist outings in the face of the international geopolitical situation.

On February 27, the European Union closed its airspace to all Russian airlines. Russia has responded with the same measure, closing its airspace to 36 countries, including Spain.

Economic Consequences

On an economic level, the war is expected to slow down the economic growth rates in Europe after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The price of energy, gas, electricity and consumer products is more expensive for the citizens of the Balearic Islands, due to higher freight costs.

There have already been delays in the delivery of products.

The rise in the price of oil (main energy source for planes and ships, and the base of the tourism industry of Balearic Islands), will cause a growth in inflation.

Measures taken

Municipalities, private citizens and some Hotels are providing facilities to accommodate Ukrainian refugees.

[1] The struggle between the European Union and third countries over the vaccination process (Sputnik vaccine), as well as the visa policy, had a negative influence in 2021 on Russian tourism in the islands.

[1] The seats were directed to Barcelona airport (45,314), Alicante (27,064), Madrid (21,548), Malaga (19,424), Valencia (4,098), Tenerife South (4,056) and Palma de Mallorca (1,680), according to data from Mabrian Technologies.