Why Seychelles lose Russian tourists

Seychelles Tourism Authority (STB) released statistics on tourist arrivals for the first half of 2018. The figures for the Russian tourist flow show a serious decline (- 17%). According to Seychelles National Bureau of Statistics, Seychelles hosted 167,381 foreign tourists from January 1 till June 24, which is 2% more than in the same period in 2017 (164,866 tourists). This is slightly below the forecast of Tourism Authority Seychelles. European countries continue to be the main incoming markets for the Seychelles, showing an increase of 5%. The leaders by the number of tourist arrivals in absolute figures are Germany, France, Great Britain, the United Arab Emirates, Italy and India. Nevertheless, a number of European markets show a very significant decline. The flow to the Seychelles in the first half of 2018 from Spain and Portugal fell by 8%, 9% - from Switzerland. The number of tourists from Russia fell by 17% in comparison with the first half of 2017 (totally 6,178 Russian citizens arrived to the islands from January 1 to June 24). In Seychelles Tourism Office this situation connects with perturbations around the Ruble exchange rate and football World Cup in Russia. It is noted that the flow of tourists from Russia to the Seychelles demonstrates the trend of decline all the first half of the year. So, in January 1645 Russians arrived to the Seychelles, in February - 1314, in March - 1395, in April - 1187, in May - 623 and for the three weeks of June - 417 tourists.