Dubai: Holidaymakers in the UAE are cancelling or postponing their trips to Paris following the terror attack on the city on Friday night, travel agents say.
Manu Mehrotra, general manager of Dubai-based Al Tayer Travel, said that the company has already received cancellations of holiday packages and flights to Paris and expects this to continue in the short-term.
“In the next couple of weeks, people will be unsure about whether they want to go to Paris. They are concerned,” he said by phone.
France has a large tourism sector. Tourism and travel directly contribute $102.6 billion to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), according to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC).
France received 1.1 million visitors from the Middle East, contributing 12.1 million hotel nights in 2014, said tourism analyst Rashid Aboobacker, associate director at TRI Consulting.
However, Nasir Jamal Khan, chief executive of Dubai-based Al Naboodah Travel and Tourism Agencies, said that the company has seen some cancellations of flights to Paris booked for the next few weeks but is not too concerned, adding that he doubts tourists will cancel trips planned for early 2016.
Mehrotra said that it is too early to say what the impact will be on travel to Paris in the long-term.
Aboobacker said given that Paris is a popular holiday destination, he expects “travel demand from the UAE and Middle East to resume as soon as the security threat abates, unless further incidents happen in the city or the wider region.”
Hotel arrivals in Paris reached 22.4 million in 2014, according to the Paris Convention and Visitors Bureau website.
The French authorities have temporarily closed tourist attractions, such as the Eiffel Tower and Disneyland Paris, after French president Francois Hollande declared three days of national mourning.
The French embassy in the UAE said that it will continue issuing Schengen visas. Emiratis are exempt from obtaining a visa to enter the Schengen countries.
Paris was hit by what Hollande described as “terrorist attacks of an unprecedented scale” that killed 129 people and left more than 200 wounded. Gunmen carried out simultaneous attacks near a football stadium and on restaurants and a concert hall on Friday night.
The assault was claimed by terror group Daesh as revenge for France’s military involvement in Syria and Iraq. France joined US air strikes on Daesh in Iraq last year and in Syria this year.
Hollande declared a national state of emergency on Friday, deploying 1,000 additional troops around Paris, and imposing border controls.
The attacks follow the assault at French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in January this year that left 17 people dead.
