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Aug. 19, 2011
Levant tourism rollercoaster
Tourism is bouncing back in Egypt but not for Syria or Lebanon.
ARIEH O’SULLIVAN THE MEDIA LINE
“Be careful,” said the Israeli border clerk as we passed into the Egyptian Sinai, reigniting initial concerns that perhaps it’s still too volatile to be vacationing at the resorts along the Red Sea.
“Oh, don’t worry. We say that to those entering Israel, too,” she added reassuringly.
Travel to the Middle East this year was supposed to reach record highs, but the Arab Spring sent the numbers tumbling, as the violence and turmoil kept many away. But there are signs of recovery in Egypt and in Israel, even as tourism continues to drop in Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinian areas.
Egypt’s Tourism Ministry has announced special discounts for Ramadan visitors, particularly targeting the Gulf states. Egyptian Finance Minister Hazem El-Beblawi told Reuters that the Egyptian government forecast revenues from tourism would total $10 billion in the financial year that began on July 1, compared with $11.6 billion in 2009/10.
El-Beblawi said the tourism minister told him, “Occupancy in Sharm el-Sheikh and other places on the Red Sea was systemically and constantly recovering. If this trend continues, by the end of the year, we will reach the normal level.”
According to the United Nation’s World Tourism Organization, which monitors tourism trends, recovery has already been seen through statistics showing that Egypt suffered an 80 percent drop in tourism in February at the height of the anti-regime protests but that by May it had risen to 41 percent fewer visits.
“In a broader context, it should be underlined that the Middle East has been the fastest growing region in the past decade in spite of temporary disruptions and setbacks,” a UNWTO report said, adding that international travel to the region had risen from 24 million to 60 million annually in the past decade.
In Israel, more than 1.6 million visitors arrived in the first half of the year, slightly more than last year; and in June alone, 262,000 came, marking a 25 percent increase over 2009.
“In the shadow of the local and regional crises, which had a direct effect on the region’s image, the tourism industry has succeeded in maintaining incoming tourism and even increasing it,” said Israel’s Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov.
Israel recently was ranked number one among developing countries for adventure tourism, according to the Adventure Tourism Development Index. “Despite the volatile security situation, Israel is not considered unsafe by adventure travel experts,” the report said.
Alternatively, the annual Maplecraft Terrorism Risk Index released recently ranked travel to the Palestinian territories sixth in the “extreme risk” category, while Israel placed 20th.
Palestinian Authority Tourism Minister Kholoud Daibes told this reporter that tourism was in fact down this year from last, even though the Palestinian territories were not the scene of any major violent events during this time period.
“Last year, we had two million [visitors]. This year, we are expecting 15 percent less due to the circumstances around us. We are around 700,000 until now,” Daibes said during a recent festival in the West Bank town of Birzeit.
“We would like to introduce Palestine with its diversity. With its different, let’s say, image, than the one circulating in the media,” she added.
Syria and Lebanon, on the other hand, have seen tourism die a painful death as President Bashar al-Asad’s troops ratchet up the bloody crackdown on popular unrest that erupted in March.
“We would be happy to arrange for you a package that doesn’t take in the risky spots. The hotels are offering very many special deals now,” a travel agent at Syritours, one of the leading tour operators in Syria, said cheerfully when reached by telephone.
The Syrian Tourism Ministry’s Damascus in August brochure is offering Ramadan night tours in the old market, sponsored by the Iranian cultural chancellery; and a film festival at the Russian culture centre.
The alleys of the Damascus suk (marketplace) should have been filled with tourists this summer. Ironically, it was just a year ago that the New York Times rated Syria in the top 10 of the hottest places to visit in 2010. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has cited Syria as the number one place in the world for archeological sites.
And, until this Arab Spring and the suppression of anti-regime protests during which human rights organizations say nearly 2,000 people have been killed, tourist numbers had been steadily climbing. The United States and the European Union have issued severe travel warnings against visiting Syria and have urged their citizens there to “depart immediately.”
Syrian Tourism Minister Lamia Assai said the unrest has been a blow to the industry.
“Tourism has been the sector hardest hit by the incidents in Syria,” Assai told the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat. “Hotel reservations have been cancelled as insurers refuse to cover tourists wishing to visit Syria.
“Tourist arrivals from Europe and the Arab Gulf states have almost stopped,” she said, adding that occupancy rates at hotels had plummeted “to zero” during the summer holiday season.
The crisis has hit the economy hard. Since the outbreak of the uprising, Syria’s tourism sector – which reportedly makes up 12 percent of the economy – has almost completely ceased operations.
Neighboring Lebanon, too, is suffering. Lebanon’s Tourism Minister Fadi Aboud said that the country has lost most of its tourists this year due to the unrest in Syria. Speaking to Radio Free Lebanon, he said that restrictions on traveling through Syria have kept away tens of thousands of tourists from neighboring countries.
According to UNWTO figures, tourism to Syria is down 24 percent and Lebanon has seen a 19 percent drop.
“I am the only tourist I have seen during my visit to Syria. The beautiful boutique hotels, established in restored Arab houses, lie empty. The rug stores and galleries have no customers. There are no visitors to the castles and archeological sites of Syria,” Emma Sky, a former political adviser to U.S. forces in Iraq, wrote in Foreign Policy.
“I feel sad. Damascus is perhaps the most beautiful city I have visited in the Middle East,” she added. “Syrians are the friendliest and kindest of people.”
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