The impact of war in Ukraine on the inbound tourism in Lithuania

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to examine the impact of the war in Ukraine on the inbound tour operators. The hypothesis that war in Ukraine has a significant impact on Lithuanian inbound tour operators was tested using a quantitative research method. To do so, the data was collected through an online survey, targeting Lithuanian inbound tour operators providing ground services for international tourists in Lithuania. The moment of the survey (2022, April) provided opportunity to examine the effect of war in Ukraine on inbound tourism. The results show that the war has a serious negative impact on tourism arrivals to Lithuania. The study found that the number of bookings has decreased heavily, what also means decrease in tourism revenues. The main cancellation reasons that were mentioned are military conflict in Ukraine and unsafe situation. Biggest number of cancellations arrived from Germany, United States and France. Tourism products with the greatest impact are cultural, business tourism and weekend trips. Our study is, to the best our knowledge, the first to examine the impact of the war in Ukraine on the inbound tour operators. Results from the study hold potential for better understanding how war and political instability influence business performance.