New economic research has revealed the Russian tourism market’s predicted growth in Europe has dropped by seven percentage points this year.

The European Travel Commission (ETC) had originally predicted tourism to the continent would grow by 10% after 18.1 million Russians visited it in 2013, making it the third largest source market.

However, in the wake of the ongoing crisis in Ukraine where Russia illegally invaded the Crimea and remains accused of the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines MH17, the predicted growth has been revised to 3%.

The slowing down of the growth is good news for UK tour operators who have reported an increase in enquiries from European hoteliers, particularly in the luxury sector, who had previously focused on the more lucrative Russian market.

Kirker Holidays managing director Ted Wake recently reported a 40% increase in offers from its top hoteliers, a figure also quoted by Classic Collection deputy managing director Matt Rice.

The cooling off of the Russian market this year has come as a result of a number of factors all relating to events in Ukraine.

The fighting has had a major impact on Russia’s domestic economy while the rouble has hit an all-time low against the euro.

Sanctions have also bitten hard with countries seeing the biggest fall in visitor numbers being Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain.

However, Cyprus, Greece and Turkey have all seen a boost in Russian visitors with Turkey benefiting most as it represents 11% of the whole Russian outbound travel market, receiving four million visits in 2013.

Reasons for this anomaly include the fact that the destinations all offer good value for money, have no visa requirements and a long history of welcoming Russian tourists.

They have also been more relaxed over the imposing of sanctions against the country following the annexation of Crimea.

The immediate decline is also expected to have long-term repercussions, a predicted increase of four million visits from the Russian market between 2014 and 2016 to 2.5 million.

ETC head of research Valeria Croce said: “The underlying fundamentals of outbound travel from Russia remain strong and the market is expected to deliver pent up demand in the medium to long term, especially to those destinations which maintain their presence in the market.

“In the past, the European tourism sector has proved remarkably resilient to different types of shocks, including political unrest, economic recessions and even terrorism. 

“Despite the challenging landscape, the tourism sector is expected to confirm its role as key driver of Europe’s economy, growth and employment.”