I want to call your attention this week to a story that was the most interesting and, I think, important hotel-industry story I read this week: Ukraine's hotel industry defies the war, but profit remains elusive. It's by our contributing reporter in the region, Vladislav Vorotnikov.
The lead paragraph is enough to grab you: "Ukraine now has more hotels than it did at the beginning of the war with Russia that started in 2022, and its domestic hotel industry’s net revenue jumped sevenfold over the past five years."
When you go on to read it, you'll catch the strange-sounding juxtaposition of phrases like "the summer season of 2026 will be record-breaking for domestic tourism" alongside breakdowns of the now-necessary costs of security and alternative power investments.
This story is a glimpse into normal business operations and industry investment in a specific country and its major cities — but in wartime, in 2026.
Hotels historically are places of resilience, providing shelter, food, refuge, space for temporary hospitals, you name it. This 2020 article from Al Jazeera gives you a quick and interesting breakdown of hotels in times of crisis, citing examples that range from Beirut in the '70s to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Vorotnikov's article this week about Ukraine is compelling to me because it's so universal in many ways. The voices in this story are happy about leisure demand, they lament the difficulty of finding and retaining labor — all relatable issues for hoteliers around the world. But of course, wartime circumstances are so different.
We all need these perspectives. This is where learning happens. Please, seek different, global perspectives on the issues facing your business and your teams. I fear we get so insular here in the United States, listening to the same executive voices on event stages, chasing after the same best practices. Cast a wider net. You might find some empathy, some resources, some different kinds of tips or reminders.
Some of the most-read stories on our site this summer were sourced from the Middle East, Europe and Asia. This has always been a global industry and it's a great time to remember that.
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