RIGA, April 22 (LETA) - Last year, the occupancy rate of Latvia's hotels was at the level of 1997-1998, Santa Graikste, executive director of the Latvian Hotel and Restaurant Association, said in an interview with Latvian Radio on Friday. 

She said that last year's results reflected the government policy to impose harsher Covid-19 restrictions on the hospitality sector than those in neighbor countries. As a result, the year 2021 was quite similar to 2020 as the hospitals' occupancy rate fell to the level recorded back in 1997-1998. 

The start of 2022 looked very hopeful, but the war in Ukraine changed the situation abruptly, with many clients cancelling their bookings for security fears, Graikste said. 

"The beginning of the year was indeed very hopeful. We even compared it with 2019, and some said that the results of 2019 might be surpassed. But the outbreak of the war brought about corrections, and cancellations began. By now, the process has stopped, though," the head of the association said. 

The Latvian Hotel and Restaurant Association, founded in 1993, is an organization that unites hotels, guest houses, motels and restaurants for a professional cooperation.