Today Frank Wolfe, CEO for Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP) had the honor of speaking with Irina Sidletska, president of the Ukrainian Hotel and Resort Association (UHRA), while she was keeping safe inside a bomb shelter in Ukraine. She reached out to Wolfe, requesting that the following unedited information was relayed to the tourism industry.
The message is as follows:
Ukrainian Hotel and Resort Association (UHRA) urges US-based tourist and hospitality associations, as well as whole tourism community — travel-related authorities and bodies, professional associations, and businesses — to push for imposing restrictive measures on Russian tourism and hospitality industry:
- Expel Russia from UNWTO (please, see the respectful appeal, + list of local tourism authorities);
- Expel Russia from IATA and its bodies (please, see the respectful appeal);
- Urge global OTAs, i.e., those holdings, which own/operate booking.com, expedia.com, hrs.de, hotels.com, C-trip.com, Airbnb and others to immediately halt their services on the Russian territory, and for Russian entities and individuals;
- Urge international wholesalers and tour operators such as Hotelbeds, DOTW, Sunhotel, Travco to terminate any kind of relationship and serving the Russian tourists and business units.
The Association of Hotels and Resorts of Ukraine is an independent non-profit voluntary public organization that unites hotels and resorts operating in the Ukrainian market. We are also open to joining full or associate members of hotel associations, hotel development companies, and higher and secondary education institutions that train professionals for the hotel sector. The Association is free for new members to join and for registered members to leave.
Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP) established in 1952, is an international, nonprofit association, headquartered in Austin, Texas, USA, with offices in the United Kingdom, Netherlands and Dubai. HFTP is recognized as the spokes group for the finance and technology segments of the hospitality industry with members and stakeholders spanning across the globe. HFTP uniquely understands the industry's pressing issues and assists its stakeholders in finding solutions to their challenges more efficiently than any organization. It does this via its expert networks, research, certification programs, information resources and conferences/events such as HITEC