CEOs of Russian Booking Sites Are More Worried About the Ruble Than Crimea

With Russia annexing Crimea, and despite months of unrest in Ukraine, the CEOs of some of the top online travel companies in Russia seem to believe that the falling value of the ruble is having more of an impact on their businesses than the political unrest in Ukraine and Crimea. "We do not see any impact," says Marina Kolesnik, the CEO of Travel.ru (Oktogo Group), referring to the turmoil in Ukraine. "We are more conerned by the fact that the Russian ruble devalued against the euro and U.S. dollar by more than 10 percent since the beginning of the year. That makes travel to European destinations more expensive." Travel.ru The average spending on a trip to Europe for Travel.ru has been stable, though, as travelers are booking further in advance, staying at budget hotels, or taking advantage of special offers, Kolesnik says. Kolesnik points out that travel