Mideast tourism takes a tumble amid unrest

By David Rosenberg /The Media Line

Prince Harry, the third in line to the English throne, early this month canceled his trip to Dubai where he was due to play in a weekend charity polo tournament.

“Prince Harry was very much looking forward to the visit but feels that it would be insensitive for him to participate in a sporting event at a time when there are matters of greater priority to focus on in the region,” the palace announced.

Not surprisingly, the regrets were couched diplomatically, with only the slightest hint of the unrest that has shaken the Middle East from Morocco to Iran. But Harry’s concerns aren’t his alone. Tourists are cancelling their sightseeing trips to the pyramids, shunning the beaches of Dubai and business travellers are pulling out of conference and postponing meetings.

Travel to the Middle East is suffering a double whammy. Images of mass protests and outright war have scared visitors away while oil prices are lifting the cost of jet fuel and airfares. Last year’s fastest-growing travel market and looking forward to another good year in 2011, the Middle East industry is now in trouble, Euromonitor International says in a report.

Prince Harry stayed away from Dubai, which has remained quiet throughout the regional turmoil. But, for now, he is the exception. Sana Toukan, Euromonitor’s research manager for travel and tourism, said visitors were still flying to Middle East destinations that have remained out of the news.

“Tourism is expected to be deterred only in countries which are affected by the turmoil,” he told The Media Line by e-mail and even those countries have managed to remain a lure for visitors going to destinations distant from the unrest. “In Egypt, places like Sharm El Sheikh (a Sinai report 250 miles from Cairo) were very slightly affected by the violence.”

Nevertheless, the list of countries Toukan cited is quite long and includes Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman and Algeria. Six of them number among the region’s top eight destinations by number of arrivals.

As of last week, the US State Department has travel warnings issued for nine Middle Eastern countries and travel alerts for two others. The latest addition to the list was Yemen. Britain has advised against any travel to Libya and Yemen and has more limited warnings for Bahrain, Iran and Iraq.

Tourism is a critical industry for the region, which has historic and archeological sites, pristine beaches and cities holy to Islam, Christianity and Judaism, ensuring a steady stream of pilgrims.

Countries like the United Arab Emirates and Qatar have developed glitzy resorts, host high-profile sporting events, built giant hub airports and global-reaching airlines to service them as they try to diversify their economies. Other countries, like Algeria and Libya are following suit.

As a result, the Middle East led the world in tourism growth last year, with the number of international tourist arrivals jumping 14% to 60mn people, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation. That was double the global increase. Tourism brought in $149bn of income to the region in 2010 and was responsible for 4.5mn jobs, or 8% of the region’s workforce.

Last year, the World Travel and Tourism Council forecast the figure would rise by 89% over the next decade.

Egypt, with its pyramids and beach resorts being the region’s biggest travel draw, has been the hardest hit. It attracted 12.7mn last year, bringing in $10.2bn in revenues and employing some 2mn people. But the outbreak of mass demonstrations, which led to hundreds of deaths and the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak, sent tourists packing at the peak of the season.

The government estimates that some 210,000 tourists left Egypt at the end of January, cutting revenue by $178mn in one week. Reservations cancelled for February deprived the country of another $825mn in earnings, it said. While Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the centre of protests, has become a tourist attraction in its own right, Egypt continues to suffer unrest and uncertainty.

Bahrain had turned itself into a travel draw for business people and regional tourists. But now it has seen arrivals dry up amid anti-government protests. The government was forced to postpone indefinitely a Formula One Grand Prix event, which brings in 40,000 visitors every year, and had been scheduled for March 13. Its month-long Spring of Culture extravaganza has been downsized with all musical events cancelled, according to the organiser’s website.

Adding to the region’s tourism sector woes is the rising price of oil, a direct consequence of the unrest that has hit energy exporter Libya and prompted fears it will spread to other oil producers. European jet fuel barge prices reached their highest in more than two years on Friday to $1,060 a metric ton in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp oil hub.

Higher fuel prices may cause “a summer of financial misery” for travellers as airlines and tour operators tack on fuel surcharges to holiday packages, the Bloomberg News quoted the UK-based researcher KBC Energy Economics as saying.