How will tourism in the Middle East be affected?

[aaron]

The Middle East forum has been a little on the quiet side of late, so hopefully this poll might spark some discussion. See the following article and cast your vote! Let's hope it won't be affected, but tell us what you think all the same...

Middle-East facing bookings crisis

Destinations like Turkey, Egypt and Tunisia face a huge drop in bookings in the event of a war, operators have warned.

Although a US attack on Iraq is likely to hit tourism generally, the big companies fear sales to the Middle East will come to an abrupt halt, as they did during the Gulf War.

Operators are already planning to capacity cuts to certain holiday hot spots.

"A build-up of action can have a double impact on this winter and on the peak period for summer 2003 bookings," said Thomas Cook tour operations managing director Manny Fontenla-Novoa.

"We have to start thinking about what would happen to destinations such as Turkey, Egypt and Tunisia."

Other operators are following suit and Association of Independent Tour Operators deputy chairman Noel Josephides attacked the government's stance over Iraq.

"All our jobs are at risk, all our businesses are at risk," he said.
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