The Finns, who were living off the flow of tourists from Russia, compare the effects of the corona crisis with 1991, when the Soviet Union ceased to exist.
This is stated in the material of The Washington Post.
The coronavirus pandemic forced the Finnish authorities to close the border with Russia, thus stopping the two million tourists flow. As noted in the publication, the epidemiological situation in the Russian Federation deprives Finns of hope for the resumption of cooperation by the beginning of the tourist season. Moreover, each month of downtime for local entrepreneurs is a loss of up to 25 million euros.
Petteri Terho, a representative of the Zsar Outlet Village shopping center in the border village of Baalimaa, says that the “effect is huge”, because no one thought that such risks would be possible in 2020.
Markku Heinonen, head of the development department of the border city of Lappeenranta, draws attention to the fact that the current crisis in Russian tourism, although it is large-scale, is not the first. For example, in 2014-2015, there was also a decrease in tourist flow.
However, not everyone is able to survive in idle conditions. So, Mohamad Darwich, the manager of the Laplandia Market store in the city of Nuyamaa, complains that his business “melted in one day” when the border between the states was closed.
After quarantine, Darwich opened his store again, but only for local residents. He hopes that the border will be open at least by mid-autumn. At the same time, the entrepreneur emphasizes that this is possible with an “optimistic scenario”.
According to a study in Finland, if the situation on the border does not change before the end of this year, South Karelia will lose at least 225 million euros, and hundreds of workers will be laid off.