A report by Agence France-Presse said, “Since the outbreak of the war between Israel and Hamas, tourists have begun to avoid visiting the Middle East, which poses a threat to the tourism sector in countries such as Jordan, Lebanon, and Egypt that depend largely on tourism to support their treasuries.”
The report added that the number of tourists to the city of Petra – the jewel of the Jordanian desert, which was visited by 900,000 tourists last year – clearly declined last month from what it was last October.
The Palestinian resistance – led by the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Hamas movement – launched Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7, to which Israel responded with a devastating war on the Gaza Strip, resulting in the martyrdom of more than 15,000 Palestinians, including 6,150 children and more. Of 4 thousand women, in addition to more than 36 thousand wounded.
The French report quoted a tourist guide as saying, “Unfortunately, if you visit Petra now, you will only see a small number of visitors,” adding that “organized trips that include several destinations, bringing together Jordan, the West Bank, and Israel, have completely stopped, and dozens of reservations have been cancelled, especially for groups.” Coming from the United States.”
The report also quoted a receptionist at the Petra Palace Hotel as saying, “The number of visitors in the main hotels has decreased between 25% and 50%, while some small hotels have no one.”
Agence France-Presse quoted Olivier Ponti from Forward Keys, a company that analyzes travel data, as saying: “The war led to a halt in travel requests to Israel” and had a “ripple effect on neighboring destinations, as Middle Eastern countries suffer from a significant decline in new bookings.” “.
He added that some tourists replaced their usual travel destinations, such as Egypt and Turkey, with other destinations in southern Europe, such as Spain, Greece and Portugal.
The Standard & Poor’s credit ratings agency said at the beginning of last November that Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt – the countries directly neighboring Israel and Gaza – will suffer more than others from a decline in tourism.
She pointed out that tourism represented 26% of Lebanon’s foreign revenues last year, 21% for Jordan and 12% for Egypt. As for Israel, the number was only 3%.
Standard & Poor’s explained that since the war, “many tourism agencies in Egypt have reported the cancellation of about half of their reservations for last November and this December, especially from European tourists.”
Advisor to the Jordanian Prime Minister Suleiman Al-Farajat said, “Over the past two decades, Jordan has been able to become a well-known and safe tourist destination, and therefore recovery if the war stops will be rapid.”
But he warned that “the impact of the war will remain until the beginning of the next season, and if the war on Gaza does not stop, the next season is also in danger,” and pointed out that if the war stops, “tourism will approach the normal level” in September 2024, according to what the agency reported. French press.
A report by the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth was published last month He monitored the decline in business in the automobile and aviation sectors, indicating a sharp decline in the number of flights to and from Ben Gurion Airport, amounting to 80% compared to last year, while many international airlines canceled their flight routes until further notice.
