NEW DELHI: Amid the ongoing West Asia crisis, international tourism in Gujarat witnessed a significant dip as travellers grew cautious of geopolitical instability. Industry stakeholders highlighted that the conflict led to a 30 to 40 per cent decline in outbound international travel from Gujarat, with popular destinations like Dubai and Abu Dhabi seeing the sharpest drop in interest.
While some travellers shifted their focus toward Southeast Asia and Europe, a large section of the market opted for domestic destinations.
Manish Sharma, owner of Akshar Travels, said, "When we see that the war between Iran, Israel, and America is still looming large, then there has been some impact on international tourism. But if I talk about tourism, then tourists are going to all the destinations in Europe, America, Southeast Asia, like Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Bali. Overall, there has been an impact of 30%, especially in the Middle East, at destinations like Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Turkey, and Azerbaijan."
Beyond security concerns, a rise in the value of the dollar and increased fuel prices also pushed up the cost of international packages.
"This time, the good thing is that due to the increase in the rate of the dollar on the international level, the cost of the tour has also increased. Due to petrol and diesel, there has been a hike of like 10%, so in such a situation, domestic tourism has increased a lot. International tourism has been affected somewhere; its good effect is visible in the fact that domestic tourism has increased," Sharma added.
The disruption in the Dubai sector was particularly impactful, as the destination typically accounted for a third of Gujarat's annual international tourism.
Alap Modi, Owner of Ajay Modi Travels, said, "If we talk about the impact, then the entire sector is down on the side of Dubai. For international trips from Gujarat, 30% of the tourists used to travel to Dubai every year. So, it has been completely disturbed. And the tourism that is going on now, the maximum is on the far east side, that is, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Bali, Vietnam, Phuket is also there. And a lot of people are going to Europe....That is, if you look at it, then leaving some sectors, about 30-40% of the international tourism is down."
Travel operators reported that the fear of sudden flight route closures or being stranded abroad during a crisis deterred families from booking trips to the Middle East.
"For international tourism, people are doubting whether to go this year or not. So, there is a question mark, if there is some problem after going, or something has happened up and down, or the flight routes have been closed, like suddenly Dubai was closed in the middle. So, if something like that happened, then looking at all those challenges, people are going less. Average international tourism is less this time. Domestic is going well, people are going to Chardham, people are going to Kerala, Kashmir, Himachal, all places are doing well," Modi said.
While domestic tourism remained strong in states like Kerala and Himachal, the recovery in Kashmir remained gradual. Operators pointed out that while overall numbers in Kashmir improved compared to the previous year, certain areas continued to struggle with low footfall.
"If we talk about Pahalgam, then it had a very big impact. Last year, tourism was zero all of a sudden. And if we see now, then it is only 30-40% down. That is, the average tourism of Kashmir has reached 50-60% now, that too with great difficulty. In a lot of dates, that also decreases, increases, but we can say that the average scenario is 50% in the whole of Kashmir. In Pahalgam, it is even 10-15% less than that. There are a lot of people this year who want to visit more parts of Kashmir, but are avoiding Pahalgam in particular," Modi added.