Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the Kremlin-backed war in eastern Ukraine are changing travel plans.
Ukrainians are boycotting Russian destinations — and trying to avoid Russians at other vacation spots.
Olga Gerda Efimova, 34, a Kyiv entrepreneur, went to one of the Egyptian resorts for May holidays and soon regretted her the decision. She and her family encountered Russian tourists who treated them with hostility. “Having talked to Russians we found out that we, Ukrainians, are American prostitutes.
Ukraine does not need presidential elections as Russians have already chosen Vladimir Putin for us,” Efimova wrote on her Facebook page on May12. “I will skip the details about how Russian children accused my son of being from a nation that has not paid gas and water bills to Russia.”
Many Ukrainian travelers used to inquire about hotels without Russians, some of whom are known to be very noisy and rude on vacation, even prior to the recent Ukraine-Russian tension, Ukrainian travel agents say.
“Now, after the EuroMaidan revolution and annexation of Crimea by Russia, the number of Ukrainians who do not want to come across Russians during their vacations abroad has increased to around 30 percent,” says Olena Bevz, a travel agent of Malva Tour, a Kyiv travel agency.
These Ukrainian travelers are simply trying to avoid brutality and aggression while resting at the seaside, she says.
Bevz, like many other travel agents, advice such tourists to not go to Egypt and Turkey, two popular travel destinations among Russians. But following the advice cannot guarantee much, as Russians can be found everywhere.
Iryna Horbach, an economist from Kyiv, came across an aggressive Russian two weeks ago while visiting her friend in Estonia. “When a (Russian) man heard that I am from Kyiv, he started telling me that Ukraine has to unite with Russia, not with Europe. When I disagreed, he became very aggressive and called me ‘a fascist,’” Horbach says, adding that even after this unpleasant incident she does not plan to look for tours without Russians on purpose, but still would be happy to rest somewhere without Russians.
Taking into account the growing demand for Russian-free travels, Maksym Savanevsky and Dmytro Yurchenko, two Ukrainian programmers, decided to help their compatriots in finding places to go. They plan to set up a website NoRussians.com that would help to find hotels without Russians. “We will make you happy to stay in a hotel without Russians,” the website slogan says.
Although the service has not started working, it has already attracted interest from potential users, particularly from Russia with 32,000 users “already subscribed to our service,” Savanevsky says. “Most of the subscribers are from Russia. There are many Russians who do not want to stay in the same hotel with their compatriots and feel ashamed for belonging to the country.”
Bevz of the Malva Tour travel agency believes that setting up “tours without Russians” is a useless effort, as Russians go everywhere and they are a significant part of business for many resorts and hotels. “If you want to rest without Russians, you will have to look for such kind of information online autonomously,” she adds.
Kyiv Post staff writer Nataliya Trach can be reached at [email protected]
