Report: Euro fan demand for hotel rooms in Ukraine capital "low"
“At present hotel owners can’t even rent out rooms at nominal cost,” the Kommersant-Ukraine newspaper reported in the former Soviet republic.
The article cited political turmoil in the country that has frightened off international business travelers, who are the primary customers of major Kyiv hotels, as a key cause for an excess supply of hotel rooms in the city during upcoming summer months.
A planned boycott of Euro 2012 games in Ukraine by some European Union politicians over alleged bad treatment of Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko in jail is also said to have reduced numbers of fans willing to travel to Ukraine.
Many Kyiv hotel operators raised room prices five- and even ten-fold in months leading up to start of the June 8-July 1 tournament which Ukraine co-host with Poland.
Most now have reduced prices dramatically but are still unable to fill rooms, the article said.
Demand reportedly is particularly low for rooms during the tournament’s later stages. The Euro 2012 final is scheduled to be played at Kyiv’s Olympic Stadium.
Fan lodging has been Ukraine’s most intractable headache in the run-up to Euro 2012, as authorities have struggled to prevent hotel operators from charging sky-high prices, and at the same time to convince them to provide European service standards, which are not common in the country.
Kyiv officials have suggested several thousand international fans might avoid the city’s hotels completely by using specially-prepared campsites on an island in the Dniepr River.
The campsite is incomplete and, nine days before the start of Euro 2012, workers were still erecting fencing, pouring asphalt on roads and installing plumbing and power lines, a news report by Ukraine’s TSN television channel said. dpa sbk bag Author: Stefan Korshak