Sentiment Survey: Ukraine

The first hotel market sentiment survey conducted in Ukraine as the combined efforts of the Ukrainian Hotel & Resort Association (UHRA) and Horwath HTL Hungary.

The global crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic has dramatically changed the tourism industry around the world, and Ukraine is no exception. Tourism is one of the sectors that have been hit the hardest globally, suffering from severe restrictions on cross-border travel. The hotel and aviation industry are both on ‘respirators’ and their survival is limited to their ability to minimise costs and capitalise as much as possible on domestic demand.

The share of tourism in the overall economy of Ukraine is approximately 3% of GDP (State Agency for Tourism Development, April 2020), well below the international average of 10.3% (WTTC 2020 Report) which indicates that tourism is not taken seriously into account in the formation of economic policy at the national level.

The report gives an overview of how much the local hotel industry has been impacted by COVID-19 and what local hoteliers believe the future holds. The results are somewhat surprising as in some instances they are more optimistic than what we have experienced elsewhere in CEE.