Rouble's slump squeezes tourism in South-east Asia

Hanoi

THE rouble's sharp decline is exacting a toll on South-east Asian tourism as Russians think twice about doubling their budgets for their next beach holiday in Vietnam, Thailand or Cambodia.

The rouble fell 43 per cent last year against the US dollar, hurt by plunging oil prices and Western sanctions imposed over Moscow's role in the Ukraine political crisis. A Russian tourist now needs to fork out as much as 140,000 roubles (S$3,403) for a trip to Vietnam, including plane tickets and accommodation, up from 60,000 roubles last year, a state-run Vietnamese newspaper estimated. For tho…