• High season ‘catastrophic’ as guides report mass cancellations
• Tour operators rush to evacuate stranded travellers, refund future bookings

PARIS: Cancelled flights, postponed trips and a great deal of uncertainty: the war in the Middle East is casting a long shadow over the tourism outlook for a region that has become a prizes destination for travellers worldwide.

“My last group of tourists left three days ago, and all the other groups planned for March have been cancelled,” Nazih Rawashdeh, a tour guide near Irbid, in northern Jordan, said. “This is the start of the high season here. It’s catastrophic,” he told AFP.

“And yet there’s no problem in Jordan. It’s perfectly safe.” Across the world, tour operators are scrambling to find solutions for clients stranded in the region or who had trips planned there.

“The priority is getting those already there back home,” French tour operator Comptoir des Voyages President Alain Capestan said.

He said however that the war was also affecting customers who have travelled to other parts of the world, as the Gulf region is home to several major aviation hubs — Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha.

Like other companies, the German tour operators surveyed by AFP — Alltours, Dertour, Schauinsland-Reisen — announced they would cover the cost of extra nights for clients stranded in the Middle East. They also cancelled trips to the UAE and Oman until at least March 7.

Swiss operator MSC Cruises, which has a ship stranded in Dubai, told AFP on Thursday it was sending five charter flights to airlift nearly 1,000 passengers.

The firm said it expected the passengers to be out of the region by Saturday, without specifying the destinations of the flights or the nationalities of the holidaymakers.

The British travel industry association ABTA said agencies “would not be sending customers to the region for as long as the British Foreign Office advises against all non-essential travel”.

Customers whose holidays were cancelled in recent days will be able to rebook or receive a refund, it said.

The war is disrupting a sector that had been booming in the region.

Oxford Economics analysts warns that “a decline in tourist flows to the region will deal a more severe economic blow than in the past, as tourism’s share of GDP has grown, as has employment in the sector”.

“We estimate inbound arrivals to the Middle East could decline 11-27pc year-on-year in 2026 due to the conflict, compared to our December forecast that projected 13pc growth,” Global Forecasting Director Helen McDermott said.

Published in Dawn, March 6th, 2026