TRAVEL from the Middle East during this year’s end-of-Ramadan season has seen a 6.4 per cent drop compared to 2015, according to reservations data gathered by ForwardKeys.
The traditionally busy travel period, which this year falls between June 29 and July 10, has suffered declines due to plunges in bookings to Europe (-32 per cent) and the Americas (-17 per cent). According to ForwardKeys, this is likely due to recent terrorist attacks in Europe and the spread of Zika in Latin America.
Within Europe, the popular destinations of France, the UK and Turkey are down 36 per cent, 24 per cent and 40 per cent in Middle East arrivals respectively.
However, flight bookings to Asia-Pacific, Africa and within the Middle East are all ahead of last year’s numbers, dominated by VFR travel intentions.
Commenting on the trend, Olivier Jager, ForwardKeys CEO and co-founder, said: “Concern over terrorism and health alerts are clearly factors in people’s travel plans. The regional pattern shows movement away from the Americas and Europe. Whether this trend becomes permanent will be determined by events.”
ForwardKeys points out that it remains to be seen if last-minute bookings could pull back some of the decline. Last year, 27 per cent of departures during the end-of-Ramadan period were made within the preceding four weeks.
