"According to our data, the referendum and related events are not affecting demand for travel from Russia to Barcelona. Ticket bookings are declining after the referendum only because the beach season is ending. However, bookings for September and October doubled." "This is a significant increase compared to last year," Janis Dzenis, PR director of the Aviasales ticket search service, told the Interfax-Tourism portal.
According to Irina Tyurina, press secretary of the Russian Union of Travel Industry (RUTI), tour operators have also seen no decline in demand.
"According to tour operators, tourists haven't shown any particular concern since the October 1st referendum—they haven't rescheduled or cancelled their tours. Many hotels in Catalan resorts have seen a near-collapse of foreign tourists due to the ongoing events. But this doesn't affect Russians. They're even traveling more actively, hoping for discounts," she told Interfax-Tourism.
Tour operators, according to I. Tyurina, are hoping that tourism, as usual, will cope with this situation. "If demand declines and occupancy issues arise, hotels will lower their prices, which always attracts the Russian market," added the RST press secretary.
Meanwhile, hotel bookings in Catalonia from European markets are declining. According to the British newspaper The Telegraph, European tourists are trying to understand how the situation in the region will affect their vacations.
According to the newspaper, Catalan tourism industry representatives are divided. Some fear a decline in tourist arrivals and their own revenues due to the unstable political situation, while others believe tourists will continue to come regardless.
The Catalan independence referendum from Spain took place on October 1. It was accompanied by violent clashes between law enforcement, some of whom were dispatched by Madrid, which rejects the referendum's legitimacy, and peaceful participants. More than 901,000 voters voted for independence, with a turnout of 431,000. On October 10, Catalan Chief Executive Carles Puigdemont declared that the region had earned the right to independence as a result of the referendum, but called on the autonomous community's parliament to suspend the declaration of independence in order to engage in dialogue with the Spanish authorities to find a negotiated solution.
Catalonia is the most popular region in Spain among foreign tourists. In 2016, it welcomed approximately 18 million foreign tourists, including 560,000 Russians.
Source: tourism.interfax.ru