Private beach in Nice, May 2020. VALERY HACHE / AFP
The return of Russian buyers to the Côte d’Azur or to Paris again runs the risk of being postponed. Pushed back in 2020 by the closure of the borders, then in 2021 by the non-recognition of the Sputnik vaccine in France, it may slip again, as a result of the war in Ukraine.
If tourism professionals think it’s a little early to predict the possible consequences of the conflict, a return of Russian customers in the same proportions as before the Covid-19 era seems unlikely under the current conditions. The ruble has lost 40% of its value, their planes are banned from flying over European territory, and the context is unlikely to encourage the Russian-speaking space to plan a vacation in France in three months.
Russian tourism is sensitive to the geopolitical and monetary context, as evidenced by the decline in volumes observed since 2014 as a result of the fall of the ruble, the war in Donbass and the terrorist attacks in France. Around 538,000 citizens arrived in France in 2019, according to the Euromonitor research institute. As of the end of 2021, flight bookings for 2022 were negligible.
These volumes are lower than in neighboring countries – the Russian-speaking area, Turkey, Finland – and other Asian coastal destinations – Dubai, Thailand, Maldives – or European ones – Cyprus, Italy, Spain, Greece.
From the Alps to Monaco
Before the Alps (2% of the total number of overnight stays in the winter in Savoie and Haute-Savoie) and Paris (the main destination for the elite, especially with its museums, prestigious hotels and Disneyland), it is the Côte d’Azur that should suffer. most. The share of tourists from Russia and the former Soviet republics accounted for 6% of tourist overnight stays in the region in 2019, while they preferred summer and the coast between Cannes and Monaco.
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“These are clients with a lot of input,” emphasizes Christine Welter, president of the Syndicat des Hôteliers de Cannes. He also helps shopkeepers, restaurants, nightclubs, limousine drivers… It’s a lovely clientele that we’ve been working with for twenty years and that we care about on both sides. »
Home to the largest Orthodox church outside of Russia, Nice caters to the middle and upper classes. Every day “Bay of Angels” is served by ten flights from Moscow and St. Petersburg.
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“We are preparing for a season without Russians and Asians,” said Rudy Salles, deputy president of the Nice Cote d’Azur tourist office, whose promotion has already been redirected to Europeans and Anglo-Saxons, bluntly. The ruble has already fallen several times, and there is always a weak spot. Only those for whom devaluation is not a problem come. “It can be oligarchs who love Cap Ferrat, Antibes and Monaco, or holders of dual passports, whose wealth is calculated in euros or dollars and who have vaccines valid in Europe. Despite Covid-19, they continued to frequent the Côte d’Azur during the crisis.
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