Comment
Israel-Palestine crisis casts growing pall over the region and travel & tourism sectors
The escalating conflict between Israel and Palestine is shaping not only as a human catastrophe but one with profound repercussions for the region’s and potentially world’s travel and tourism sectors, writes Martin Moodie.
The crisis began with Palestinian militant group Hamas launching an unprecedented attack on Israel on 7 October, killing more than 1,400 people – including the execution-style slaughter of civilians – and taking scores of hostages.
Israel’s response, including retaliatory air strikes on the Gaza Strip against Hamas targets and a warning to Gaza citizens to flee to the south in advance of an anticipated ground invasion of the north, has led to over 3,500 Palestinian deaths.
Martin Moodie
The humanitarian disaster has worsened tragically in recent hours with a missile strike on Gaza City estimated to have killed at least 500 people and injured many more. Israel denies responsibility for the strike, alleging the missile was errantly fired by Hamas, a claim the Palestinian group refutes.
What is indisputable is that the states are once again at war and despite the efforts of several major powers to end the conflict, the situation is set to deteriorate further. “The war that began October 7 has become the deadliest of five Gaza wars for both sides,” US media Public Broadcasting Service said.
“The Middle East has known little peace in living memory. It teeters precariously on the precipice of a plunge into its most serious war for decades,” commented the South China Morning Post.
Reports from Qatar-based Al Jazeera (above) and The Times of Israel (below) offer different takes on the missile strike on a Gaza hospital
Comment: It is always invidious to report on the business repercussions of war or other human catastrophe but that is our role and there can be no doubt that the travel and tourism industry – and related sub-sectors such as travel retail – now face yet another geo-political threat out of their control.
While Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv remains open, many flights have been suspended and the very real danger of the conflict spreading has serious repercussions for the region’s vital tourism business. Air raid sirens rang out on 18 October at the airport as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was boarding a flight to depart Israel.
Related events, such as the killing of two Swedish tourists in Brussels on Monday by a Tunisian gunman believed to have been inspired by the Islamic State group and the hate crime murder of a six year-old Muslim boy in Chicago at the weekend have put the world further on edge.
Travel and tourism are two of the sectors most immediately and most seriously affected by war. The two Gulf Wars of 1990/91 and 2003 onwards had a profoundly negative impact on travel, particularly in the Middle East but also globally.
It can only be hoped that regional and international powers can wield their influence to bring some form of interim resolution to the current crisis.
The world – and to be necessarily parochial our industry – are already grappling with a stuttering economic recovery from the global pandemic, the conflict in Ukraine and numerous other challenges.
A prolonged war in the Middle East has ramifications on human, political, economic and business levels that are almost too terrible to contemplate.
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