Israel-Gaza conflict already affecting Arab destinations within a 2,000 km radius

11-12-23

Mabrian Technologies study reveals major drop in travelers' confidence in most Arab destinations, regardless of their distance from the fighting.

After the war between Israel and Gaza, the confidence of travelers in the surrounding destinations, as well as in all those considered Arab -regardless of their distance from the area- has suffered a "significant drop". This is reflected in the Security Perception Index (SPI) prepared by Mabrian Technologies, a company specializing in travel intelligence, in its latest study.

The IPS is an indicator that measures the level of trust expressed by visitors and potential travelers regarding a tourist destination, based on the monitoring of social networks. This methodology uses Artificial Intelligence to interpret traveler sentiment based on social media interactions. 

According to this Indicator, the worst performer is Egypt - the only Arab country that shares a border with the Gaza Strip - whose tourists' perception of safety is down 26 points from the beginning of October. It is followed by Jordan, with -17 points; Qatar, with -15; Tunisia, with -9; and Saudi Arabia, with -6. What is striking about the study is that the Israeli-Gaza conflict comes to undermine the confidence of travelers in destinations as far away as Oman (2,275 km), Tunisia (2,200 km) or the United Arab Emirates (2,000 km).

"In the case of the Israel-Hamas conflict, we see a dramatic drop in the perception of security in destinations surrounding the conflict area. Jordan and Egypt have lost about 20% and 28%, respectively, on this score in the last four weeks compared to the week before the October 7 attacks in Israel. 

But the effects are also evident in Saudi Arabia, which loses around 6% in its security confidence index, and even in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, more than 2,000 km and 1,800 km, respectively, from the conflict area, we can see a decline in security perception, with Qatar's being a fairly significant 18% drop," notes Carlos Cendra, CMO of Mabrian, in a note.

"Tunisia, even further away and much closer to continental Europe, also sees its score affected. Although Turkey is not an Arab country, and indeed neither is Egypt, the common theme for countries seeing an impact here is that they are considered Arab in the broadest possible sense. For example, Greece is much closer to the conflict zone than most of these affected countries, but the perception of security there has not changed noticeably," adds Cendra.