PARIS, May 20 — Europeans are choosing to vacation closer to home as the war in the Middle East has amplified security concerns and made long-haul flights more expensive.The...
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— AFP pic! Plus, enjoy an additional FREE RM10 when you sign up using code VERSAMM10 with a min. cash-in of RM100 today. T&Cs apply. PARIS, May 20 — Europeans are choosing to vacation closer to home as the war in the Middle East has amplified security concerns and made long-haul flights more expensive.
The outbreak of the conflict at the end of February has led to sharp drops to tourist destinations across the Middle East. On Tunisia’s Djerba island, the tourist season has gotten off to a slow start. Normally “we receive 100 new reservations per day, now it’s just 50,” the director of the Royal Garden Palace hotel, Anane Kamun, told AFP.
Disruptions to Gulf airports and airspace, along with higher airfares due to the jump in fuel prices, have also led to Europeans travelling to southeast Asian destinations. According to Thailand’s tourism ministry, the country suffered a sharp drop in the number of Europeans arriving in April — down 29 per cent among Germans and 44 per cent for Italians.
Germany’s TUI, the world’s largest tour operator, cut its profit outlook last month and withdrew its revenue guidance as it warned of “consumer caution” driven by the Middle East war.
“It doesn’t appear that holidaymakers are abandoning their vacation plans completely,” said Aarin Chiekrie, an analyst at stock brokerage Hargreaves Lansdown. “While that’s not ideal, it’s better than complete demand destruction,” Chiekrie said. According to estimates by the World Travel and Tourism Council, a trade body for tourism industry firms, the sector should still expand at a faster rate than the global economy this year: by 3.2 per cent compared to 2.4 per cent.
The WTTC said international visitor spending across Europe is set to climb by 7.1 per cent this year, well above the sector average, as “travellers increasingly choose destinations closer to home amid geopolitical uncertainty and disruption in other regions”. Sunny southern European countries, particularly Italy and Spain, are expected to see the biggest gains.
The war “is in the process of disrupting international tourist flows and shifting a portion of the demand to destinations seen as being safer,” said Rafael Pampillon Olmedo, a professor at the IE business school in Spain.
“Many European travellers who are hesitant to travel to the Middle East, in the eastern Mediterranean or destinations even closer to the Gulf are turning to Spain and Portugal,” he added. Pedro Aznar, an economist at the Spanish business school Esade, also said Spain is profiting from a “substitution effect”. Zakaria Meliani, operations manager at Balima Residences — which offers short-term rentals in Rabat, Morocco — said he has observed increased demand.
“Normally, the season here starts in mid-May, and this year it started right after the end of Ramadan,” he said. Travellers who had planned to vacation in the Gulf and in Asia had instead chosen Morocco, Meliani added.
“Despite an uncertain geopolitical context, Moroccan tourism is performing in line with our initial forecasts at this stage with growth of five per cent at the end of April 2026,” Moroccan Tourism Minister Fatim-Zahra Ammor said in a statement to AFP. — AFP
Middle East Petra Jordan Djerba Tunisia Spain Tourism Moroccan Travel
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