The founder of G Adventures said he was “heartbroken” when banning Russian consumers and agents from his brand – and received a death threat over his stance on Ukraine.
Bruce Poon Tip issued a call for industry unity and support for Ukraine last week as the adventure specialist cancelled holidays in Russian, and banned bookings from Russian nationals living in Russia and from Russian agencies.
He told a Travel Weekly webcast about the rationale for his ban on Russians, saying: “It’s about creating the united message in every industry.
“Unfortunately, good people get caught up in sanctions and embargoes…but it’s really the only tool that we have to get this stopped.
“I’m heartbroken I’m making those kinds of decisions. It’s going affect so many good people on the ground.”
As well as his message to the wider travel sector, his pro-Ukraine stance was celebrated within G Adventures and among customers.
“It is very important for our company culture, our people…for taking the stance, because we want to attract and retain the best people and we do that through our values,” he said.
“I’ve gotten quite a few messages from people praising [us].”
But he said he also received a death threat among the messages.
“I don’t know where they’re from – but it’s not my first,” he said, adding the person was asking why the operator wasn’t also banning trips in China and US has human rights [issues].
“It was just a long, conspiracy-laden kind of thing,” he said.
Poon Tip has also backed calls for technology giant Sabre to go further with its ban on bookings for Aeroflot.
He had praised Sabre for stopping international bookings by the Russian airline but now backs calls for the ban to be extended to domestic flights.
“The idea of sanctions is to make things so inconvenient for local people that they continue to apply pressure and they realise that those inconveniences aren’t worth a war,” he said.
“Sabre is an immediate pressure because [the war] is escalating.
“As an industry, we should just do more, we should apply pressure where we can.”
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He also highlighted how the family of Tui’s main shareholder, Alexei Mordashov, owns about 34% of the travel giant.
The Russian oligarch stepped away from the Tui’s Group supervisory board on March 2 but Poon Tip thinks that is not enough, citing the example of Roman Abramovich who is selling Chelsea FC.
So far, the operator has not seen cancellations elsewhere as a result of the invasion of Ukraine but said business has “definitely slowed”.
“There’s a wait-and-see mentality right now. People are still thinking of travelling, but bookings have slowed down slightly,” he said.
“We’re getting a lot of calls, a lot of questions: what if this happens, what if that happens, does my insurance cover this?”
The operator has 1,000 departures planned for March and April and is “fairly confident” but Poon Tip admitted: “The travel industry just doesn’t need this right now.
“As an industry, we’ve been through so much. In these last two years, we all have been in survival mode as companies.”