Crisis in The Middle East: What Does it Mean for Travel?
Photo Credit: Jerusalem seen through barbed wire. Getty Images / Chris Tobin
Skift Take
Travelers fear the Middle East is decending into war, but the situation is different everywhere you look.
It's been almost a year since the war between Israel and Hamas began, and it's been spreading wider.
For outsiders looking in, it can appear like the whole region is in meltdown, and that travel would have ground to a halt. In reality, tourism performance varies wildly across the region, with places like Dubai still doing well, but war-affected areas doing far worse.
Here’s what the crisis in the Middle East has meant for travel so far.
IsraelOnly around 500,000 tourists visited Israel between January and June, compared to about two million up to the same point last year. Around 10% of hotels in Israel are facing imminent financial collapse due to a steep decline in occupancy rates, according to a report published in July by the Israel Hotel Association (IHA).
Prior to the October 7 attack, Israel had high hopes for its tourism sector. In 2022, the country had 2.7 million tourists with $4 billion in spending. Israel was on t
