BY SACHIN KUMAR
Doha: Political and social unrest in Thailand, Egypt and Turkey — among the most preferred tourist destinations — has disturbed Qataris’ travelling plans.
Tour and travel operators have seen many Qataris cancelling bookings to the countries in the past couple of months.
“Many clients, who had made plans to holiday in Thailand, Egypt and Turkey, requested to cancel tickets because of political problems there,” said Osman bin Sayeed, Sales Manager, Al Qayed Travels and Tours.
“The number of tourists to Thailand, Egypt and Turkey goes up during December-January because other spots in the West have cold weather. Qataris look at tourist destinations with warmer weather during winter.”
According to travel agents, Thailand, Egypt and Turkey are popular among tourists throughout the year.
However, “whenever a country faces social and political unrest, its tourism sector is the first one to get hit,” said a travel agent. “Mostly family holiday trips to Thailand, Egypt and Turkey were cancelled as Qataris did not want to risk safety of their family members.”
Loss of Thailand, Turkey and Egypt has emerged as a gain for other countries.
“Most clients who cancelled their trips booked tickets for Malaysia, Dubai and Maldives,” said Osman. “Weather is also comfortable there during December-January.
The flow of tourists to these places is also high due to extreme cold in the US and Europe,” he said.
Travel agents said the majority of travellers to Thailand, Turkey and Egypt were Qataris (60 percent) while others were expats as the spending power of citizens is far higher. Outbound travel from Qatar is on the rise.
According to World Tourism Organization Database, the value of total outbound travel from Qatar stood at around $5.6bn in 2012.
The Peninsula
