Tourists who cancelled their bookings to tsunami-hit countries are turning to Middle East destinations, including Dubai and Beirut, according to airlines and travel agents."Holiday travellers are cancelling or postponing their trips to tsunami-hit places.
"There is high interest in Dubai and Beirut from the United Kingdom and other European countries," said Vinay Nambiar, a marketing officer with Malaysian Airlines.
"In addition to the visitors [coming here] for the Dubai Shopping Festival, we are likely to see an increasing number of tourists [choosing Dubai] instead of holidaying in Maldives, Phuket or Sri Lanka," he said.
The city has dressed itself up for the upcoming festival, with occupancy, already running at 85 per cent, likely to hit the ceiling in coming weeks.
Epidemic fear
Travellers are now fearing an epidemic could break out in the places hit by the disaster, he added.
The United States, the United Kingdom and some other countries have issued travel advisories, warning tourists to avoid South East Asia, particularly the tsunami-hit countries.
"Surely, in the short term, Dubai will attract tourists as it is one of the top 10 destinations in the world. Tourist arrivals will go up considerably also because the shopping festival is due to open. Even Oman and Beirut will see larger tourist arrivals," said Eyad Nakkash, sales manager of Atlas Travels, the general sales agent for Sri Lankan Airlines in the UAE.
"With rumours of another quake and an epidemic, tourists are unwilling to take risks, even avoiding places such as Singapore and Hong Kong.
"Alternative destinations benefiting from tourist inflow would be Cyprus and Turkey, in addition to Dubai and Beirut," Nakkash said.
Endorsing the general industry view, George Ambookan, marketing manager at Omeir Travels in Abu Dhabi, said the recent disaster's impact on tourist visits to the countries hit by the tsunami is temporary.
"The tourism industry has a history of bouncing back, but for the time being, island tourism is affected, especially in South East Asia. Europe is cold, and because of the strong euro, leisure travellers are looking at Middle East destinations such as Dubai, Beirut, Cyprus, Turkey and Egypt."
A British Airways official confirmed several cancellations to South East Asia. "On the other hand, bookings are increasing to Middle East cities for the weeks ahead."
While the leisure travel segment continues to see cancellations to tourist spots in South East Asia, business travel remains unaffected, analysts said.
