Today Frank Wolfe, CEO for Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP®) had the honor of speaking with Irina Sidletska, president of the Ukrainian Hotel and Resort Association (UHRA), while she was keeping safe inside a bomb shelter in Ukraine. She reached out to Wolfe, requesting that the following unedited information was relayed to the tourism industry.
The message is as follows:
Ukrainian Hotel and Resort Association (UHRA) urges US-based tourist and hospitality associations, as well as whole tourism community — travel-related authorities and bodies, professional associations, and businesses — to push for imposing restrictive measures on Russian tourism and hospitality industry:
• Expel Russia from UNWTO (please, see the respectful appeal, + list of local tourism authorities);
• Expel Russia from IATA and its bodies (please, see the respectful appeal);
• Urge global OTAs, i.e., those holdings, which own/operate booking.com, expedia.com, hrs.de, hotels.com, C-trip.com, Airbnb and others to immediately halt their services on the Russian territory, and for Russian entities and individuals;
• Urge international wholesalers and tour operators such as Hotelbeds, DOTW, Sunhotel, Travco to terminate any kind of relationship and serving the Russian tourists and business units.
