Countries brace for hit to tourism from Russia-Ukraine war

By SUZAN FRASER and AYSE WIETING
Associated Press

BELEK, Turkey (AP) — Countries from Turkey to Thailand, Egypt and Cuba are bracing for the loss of Russian and Ukrainian tourists just as their travel sectors were looking to bounce back from the coronavirus pandemic. With many tourist-dependent economies also struggling with surging inflation and other woes, hotel workers, guides and others who serve visitors from the two warring nations are expecting more pain. Nowhere is the threat of just one ripple effect of the war felt more strongly than in Antalya, a region on the Mediterranean coast where visitors from Russia and Ukraine are major contributors to tourism revenue. One shopkeeper fears the war has finished off the tourism season.