Dubai: Arab countries gripped by political turmoil are not expecting a recovery of their tourism industries until next year, according to tour operators and hotel managers.
"Recovery would be in 2012 if the situation ends now. Recovery takes time, tourism does not come overnight," said Iyad Abu Al Shamat, General Manager of Destinations Tours and Travels in Syria.
His losses in the past four months amounted to millions of liras, he said. "There are zero bookings now, we are skint."
Half the international bookings were cancelled immediately after the protests broke out in Syria and others are continuing to cancel before the tour dates for the rest of the year, he said.
Hotel occupancy is at 20 per cent, he added. "From now to the end of 2011 we are not expecting income from tourism to Syria."
In Yemen, tourist cancellations mainly from Europe reached 90 per cent in April and 75 per cent in March, said Mahmoud Al Sheibani, General Manager of Universal Touring Company in Yemen.
Travel advisories from Europe warning people against travelling to the Middle East following the wave of revolutions are hitting the recovery of Arab countries hard, industry insiders said.
"It is not a security problem, tourists are not in danger. What is happening is in the inner areas, but the problem is travel warnings. This is what affected us to a large extent," said Al Shamat.
The war in Libya is also affecting tourism in some neighbouring countries.
Tunisia, which depends on its neighbours for tourist inflow, saw the number of tourists drop by 40 per cent from January to mid-April compared to 2010, said Slah Bin Dekhil, of the National Tourism office of Tunisia.
Many Arab countries offer packages linking their destination amongst neighbours, and business in this segment has dropped due to the political unrest.
Bookings to Syria fell by 30 per cent when the unrest in Egypt began, said Al Shamat.
During the unrest in Bahrain, tourism from the GCC, on which it depends, stopped completely, said Richard Mathias, managing director of Mathias Tourism.
Bookings dropped 90 per cent in February, he said. The company manages three cruise ships weekly with 7,500 passengers and those stopped from the time the protests began until now.
"A massive cost was incurred, about $2 million from February to April," he said. "We can't recuperate our losses."
In countries where the dust from the protest has settled, such as Tunisia, Bahrain and Egypt, slow but noticeable improvement in tourism can be seen in the number of arrivals.
Tunisia suffered a 25 per cent drop in tourist arrivals from January to March but it is optimistic about the summer season after the travel advisory from some countries was lifted, said Dekhil.