The Ukraine War and Resilience

The Ukrainian People woke up to the third day of the bombing, attacks, explosions, and sirens.

It’s not a good morning today in Ukraine and the rest of the World!

Another day of uncertainty, propaganda, and death began today on Saturday, February 26.

What Tourism Resilience can do for Ukraine now:

People are hiding in subway stations, others are taking their own guns to fight the invasion. Supermarkets are running out of food, ATM machines are empty and gas stations are out of gas.

Kilometer-long lines are seen on the borders to Poland and Romania from Ukraine. Romania expects more than 1/2 million refugees. EU countries are making it easy for Ukrainians to enter. Ukrainians are welcome. This is commendable and necessary, even though it may slowly create another refugee crisis for Europe. So far more than 120,000 Ukrainians left for EU countries.

The United States is talking tough, putting sanctions into place, but Putin picked the perfect time. As a former KGB expert, the Russian President of course calculated such sanctions into his plan of action before implementing it.

He was correct in assuming not all western countries would agree on all sanctions, opening the system for loop poles. Anger explodes in Germany, Italy, and Hungary this morning over Europe’s failure to cut Russia off from the SWIFT payment sytem/

eTurboNews has been staying in touch with World Tourism Network members and eTN readers in Ukraine, the unrecognized Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republic, and Russia. Facebook is now cut off in Russia, but Telegram and VK channels remain open and are busy with outcries, photos, and videos, many authentic and true, some fake.

While the world is watching this perfect storm carefully planned by Russian President Putin unfold, also the tourism world is in a state of unbelief.

Putin hit Ukraine and the rest of the world when it was weak. A pandemic is a perfect time and history has taught this.

Tourism leaders around the world don’t speak out. It appears no attention is better. After 2 years of COVID, no one can afford more years of war and destruction.

The brave and patriotic people in Ukraine are on their own – and unfortunately for the world, this may be the best and most peaceful alternative. The world cannot afford nuclear bombs, another war in Taiwan, and a possible deadly conflict between Israel and Iran.

Since Putin cannot, the rest of the world needs to take a deep breath.

Tourism Resilience?

Those that preach tourism resilience need to take leadership for our sector with action and not just words. Showing resilience for tourism recovery must not stop and maybe a way forward not only for tourism, the economy but also for world peace.

The show of resilience, the promotion of tourism during such times may contribute to peace and a way forward in a small way. Not only do we need a resilient travel and tourism industry, but we also need resilient travelers- and this takes heavy marketing and PR.

The World Tourism Network and the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Center, and IIPT are the only global tourism entities that had said something in the last 3 days. The rest of the tourism world remains speechless and silent.

The World Tourism Network had called the tourism world to speak with a United Voice and provide Smart Guidance for World Peace. After all, tourism is a Guardian of World Peace.

While many Ukrainian heroes may be dying today in the fight for Kyiv, the world needs to be wiser than a dangerous, confused, and obviously sick Russian President Putin.

Watch our graphic video from Ukraine:

Due to very graphic content, we cannot display a video about today’s scenes from Ukraine collected by eTurboNews Readers.

Please use the password “Ukraine” to watch this graphic video.

– eTurboNews | eTN

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