It will be significantly more difficult for Russian citizens to travel to Sweden in the future. But it will probably not have a significant impact on the tourism industry, experts believe.
However, the industry fears a new blow when the concern causes people to stay at home.
Most Russian tourists come to Sweden by plane.
– But now the airspace in Russia is largely closed, says Jim Hofverberg, communications manager at Visit Sweden.
It is possible to get here via ferries, but it is a route that few people usually take. Russian tourists to Sweden will probably decrease from an already low level to an even lower one. In normal times, that is, before the corona outbreak, the number of Russian guest nights in a year amounted to 182,000, compared to a total of 71 million.
– Russian visitors account for between 0.2 to 1 percent of all tourists coming to Sweden. They have been very few for many years, says Jim Hofverberg.
He does not believe that a new loss due to the war will affect the industry as a whole, but individual players may notice the decrease.
The popular tourist destination Vasa Museum in Stockholm is expected to receive around 850,000 visits in 2022, a sharp increase from the pandemic years, but still far from the 1.5 million per year before the corona pandemic hit.
– Of these, a vanishingly small proportion will come from Russia. But we will not notice any difference in absolute numbers compared to last year. Russian tourists have been few for a long time, says Mathias Andersson, business development manager at the Vasa Museum.
It is difficult to predict how much Russian tourism to Sweden will decrease in total:
– It is still too early to say, it all depends on how long the war will last, says Jonas Siljhammar, CEO of Visita, the industry and employer organization for the Swedish tourism industry.
The number of Russian tourists has remained largely the same from 2015 to 2020.
– Russian tourists account for less than one percent of all guest nights in Sweden in 2020, says Jonas Siljhammar.
Russians prefer to visit the three major cities in Sweden. They are known for their love of shopping, both big and small.
– It is true that Russian tourists have a reputation for spending a lot of money when they are in Sweden. But considering that they are so few, the impact will not be that big if their numbers decrease, says Jonas Siljhammar.
It is not known exactly how much Russian tourists usually spend during a holiday in Sweden, as the number of visitors is so small that it is not possible to provide a basis for this. However, Jonas Siljhammar does not believe that a drop in Russian tourists would have any major impact on the Swedish tourism industry.
– However, the war will affect tourism in general. In troubled times, travel patterns are affected. People hold onto their wallets more and stay home, he says.
Another hard blow to the tourism industry is the high prices of raw materials and energy.
– They were already high before, but with the war they have become even higher.
Source: TT-SvD
