00:00Yes, the Middle East plays a key role in global travel and tourism.
00:04It's estimated to be costing at least $600 million a day in international visitor spending,
00:11according to the World Travel and Tourism Council.
00:14Disruptions to air travel, the effect on regional connectivity
00:17due to the closures of major hubs like Dubai and Doha,
00:20and traveller confidence are all affecting demand.
00:24And the situation doesn't appear to be changing any time soon.
00:28The UK's flag carrier British Airways has extended its cancellations
00:32to the likes of Bahrain and Tel Aviv until June at the earliest.
00:37The US's Delta is pausing Tel Aviv flights until August,
00:41and budget European airline Wizz Air has cancellations until September.
00:45And this all has a potentially longer-term impact for holidaymakers,
00:50including last-minute cancellations as some airlines make late decisions on flights to the regions,
00:55increased demand for different safer destinations,
00:59and rising fuel costs making flights more expensive.
01:03With the Easter school holidays coming up in Europe,
01:06some package holiday providers are reporting a surge in demand for countries like Portugal.
01:11That's up 42% in the last two weeks.
01:15Premium holiday provider Cormi has had a 55% spike in bookings for Italy over the past seven days,
01:22and that could cause more pressure in cities that are struggling with over-tourism,
01:27where locals have already been protesting about the housing shortages linked to the number of vacation properties.
01:34Gloria Guevara is president and CEO of the World Travel and Tourism Council.
01:40Gloria, thanks for joining us.
01:41Where are you seeing the biggest impact?
01:45Thank you for having me.
01:46We're seeing different levels of impact.
01:48As you mentioned before, first of all, of course, the Middle East, the lack of travelers,
01:52the lack of visitors spending, that's the $600 million daily.
01:57Second, the connectivity.
01:59Yes, although the Middle East receives only 5% of the international arrivals,
02:04they handle 14% of the international passengers.
02:08That's one of every seven passengers.
02:11Dubai Airport last year was the largest airport in the world.
02:14They have done a fantastic job.
02:16They receive over 95 million passengers, and they have become the greatest international hub,
02:23and then added to Abu Dhabi, Doha, and Bahrain, and others.
02:27You're talking about 550,000 passengers daily.
02:32And that means that those flights are not there anymore.
02:36They have a reduced capacity.
02:38Bahrain is closed.
02:39Abu Dhabi is having some operations, and Dubai is having also some flights,
02:43especially flight Dubai and Emirates, but it still is not where it was.
02:47And that means that the East and the West is not connected.
02:50We see, for instance, an impact from passengers from India, Australia,
02:54wanting to come to Europe, or from Africa, wanting to come to the North,
02:58that they were using before the Middle East.
03:01Even to Asia, we see impact to China, Japan, and Korea,
03:05for passengers from London, from Europe.
03:06So the second one is connectivity.
03:09The third impact, of course, as you mentioned before, is the pricing.
03:13The fact that the oil price has increased, and as we know,
03:1630% of the most airlines, their cost is related to the fuel.
03:22That means that there is an implication in the fares.
03:25There's going to be, unfortunately, the combination between the less offering of seed
03:30plus the increase in the price of the fuel,
03:33that formula, unfortunately, is going to result in an increase of probably some airfares,
03:38which is the third implication.
03:40So, and added to that, the last one is related to the insurance.
03:44Because of the travel alerts, unfortunately, in a lot of the destinations in the region,
03:49you don't find insurance for the travelers.
03:51There's no insurance even for the planes.
03:53That has also a significant impact.
03:55So we see the impact at different levels.
03:57This is not a regional crisis.
04:00It's a global implication for travel and tourism
04:03that currently contributes to 10% of the global GDP
04:06and employs one out of 10 people in the planet.
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