Dubai: Some UAE expatriates who are currently in Berlin have been reported safe and remain unaffected by the recent attack, a travel specialist told Gulf News on Tuesday.

UAE residents who have also booked trips to the German capital for the Christmas and New Year holidays are likewise unfazed, as they choose to push through with their travel plans.

These initial reactions from residents in the UAE are a clear indication that the travel and tourism market has grown quite immune to security incidents or terrorist attacks. Besides many holidaymakers also consider the incident as isolated.

“We have European corporate clients from UAE who are there right now and we were told that it’s business as usual for them,” said Premjit Bangara, general manager for travel at Sharaf Travel, during a phone interview.

“The immediate feedback we have is that they have not been affected by these developments and will continue their business plans till they return this weekend,” he added.

A heavy truck ploughed into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin on Monday night, killing at least 12 people and hurting 48 others. Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany ruled that the incident was a terrorist attack.

While the Berlin attack is going to raise concerns, residents in the UAE who have already booked their trips to Germany or elsewhere in Europe are unlikely to cancel their plans.

European holiday bookings from UAE travellers usually surge around Christmas or New Year, with destinations like Austria, Switzerland, France, United Kingdom and Germany proving to be some of the popular destinations.

“We do not anticipate cancellation on booked passengers to Germany as most are treating this incident as an isolated case  and hopefully the authorities will tighten their vigil and prevent   further incidents from occurring,” said Bangara.

“This is also the holiday season where most Western expatriates who are booked to travel would still prefer spending Christmas and new Year with their families  and would not allow an incident like this to dampen their festive plans.”

Bangara noted that travellers from UAE have become very “resilient”, adding that “it will take more than one incident to effectively make them” change their holiday plans.

“There certainly will be concerns as travellers will take all the basic precautions. However, as we have seen with incidents in the past, the travelling public is very resilient.”

“Having said that, there are certain countries which continue to remain on traveller’s radar purely because they are close to war zones and have experienced repeated terrorist incidents over a short period of time, namely Turkey and recently Egypt,” added Bangara.