The COVID-19 pandemic and sanctions: features of the impact on the tourism industry

The article raises the topical issue of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic consequences and the previously imposed sanctions against the Russian Federation on the tourism industry. As the first hypothesis of the study, the author assumes the belief that the economic sanctions imposed against the Russian Federation have had a more harmful impact than the coronavirus pandemic. The second hypothesis of research is aimed at studying the possible positive consequences of crisis situations, because the cyclical development of all economic processes indicates that each crisis phenomenon is followed by an upswing. The study is based on information about the dynamics of outbound tourism of Russian citizens to countries such as Abkhazia, Turkey and the Czech Republic - the choice of these countries is justified by the significant interest of Russian citizens in visiting them, as well as the presence of various kinds of political restrictions imposed by the leaders of these countries against the Russian Federation. Using statistical analysis methods based on a graphical description of the processes, the dynamics of tourist flows in different periods, as well as the share of the total number of tourists, were calculated and presented. The study concluded that political factors have a greater impact on the world tourism development than the pandemic. The author suggests the possible positive consequences of the exit from the crisis of the pandemic of the tourism industry.