Some European tourism down from Asia, Middle East due to Iran war

Tourism officials say fewer tourists are coming to Switzerland, Austria and Great Britain due to the Iran war.

Guests from Asia cancelled in March, partly because flights via hubs in the Middle East such as Dubai were cancelled, Switzerland Tourism spokesman André Aschwanden told dpa. New bookings were also declining.

“This is all the more unfortunate because it is currently the high season in the Gulf states and also in India or South-East Asia for travel to Europe and Switzerland,” he said.

Key Swiss spots hit

The impact is being felt in Zurich, Thomas Wüthrich, director of Zurich Tourism, told dpa.

“Feedback from the catering sector, retail and other tourist services shows that the absence of international guests was already noticeable in March,” he said.

The problem was a general uncertainty about international travel, he said, leaving bookings for the summer and autumn depressed.

In Lucerne, around two thirds were reporting “a declining booking trend”, said Jessica Ternes from the Hotellerie Suisse Central Switzerland association.

“Businesses with a high share of group travellers from Asia and guests from the Gulf states are particularly affected,” she said.

Travel to Great Britain sharply lower

Great Britain is usually a magnet for guests from the Middle East. Almost a third of the big-spending tourists from Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates who travelled to Europe went to Great Britain, the tourism organization VisitBritain reported.

But since the war started on February 28, flight bookings from the Middle East have dropped 50% and those from India are down by a third, it said. Bookings through to July were significantly below the level of the previous year. Tourists are still waiting to see how the situation developed.

Austrian Alps, Vienna affected too

Austria is also feeling the effects of the war. Destinations such as Salzburg, Tyrol and in some cases Vienna were particularly affected by a sharp decline from the Near and Middle East, the spokesman for the Austrian hotel association said.

Some upmarket hotels in Vienna had 20% fewer guests.
Missing guests did not just mean empty beds but also less revenue not only for the hotel sector: Arab guests in Austria spent around three times as much money per day as tourists on average.

Few worries in Italy and Spain

Italy has seen hardly any significant declines and is not expecting that to change. Traditionally, most guests there come from Europe as well as North and South America.

In Spain, there are also no concerns about the war so far, according to the travel industry umbrella association Exceltur.

Spain could benefit if the Iran war is short. Otherwise, negative consequences would probably outweigh the positives, Exceltur believes. As a particularly safe country, it could attract more tourists.

At the same time, the association warned that fewer people might travel because of rising hotel and flight prices and strained household budgets.