Despite ongoing conflict, South African travel to the Middle East has proved resilient. While leisure travel to Israel has declined, family and religious trips continue to drive traffic.
According to a recent Travel News poll, 61% of respondents believe that travel to Israel has been negatively affected by the Middle East conflict.
However, travel agent, David Benjamin, says there is still a large contingent of South Africans travelling to Israel, despite a general slowdown.
“People who are going to attend a wedding or a bar mitzvah will still go. There are also many people who go to Israel for solidarity tours to support tourism businesses in the region during this difficult time,” explained Benjamin. Demand for short group stays and religious holidays remains, along with some business travel.
Travel to Israel has been made more difficult by the cancellation of direct connections from South Africa. El Al cancelled its direct flights after 73 years of operation, as reported by Travel News. Benjamin said there were still many carriers that South Africans could easily connect to, such as Lufthansa, Ethiopian Airlines and Turkish Airlines, but due to the current dangers in the region, these flights are frequently cancelled.
He explained that flights are often grounded without notice for up to two days, but passengers are usually rebooked on other airlines or their flight is postponed.
For surrounding areas such as Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Cyprus and Turkey, travel from South Africa remains unaffected. Only a small percentage of agents reported a decline in travel to Lebanon (15%), Egypt (9%), Jordan (5%) and Turkey (5%).
Echoing this, Michelle van Aardt from Pro Dive Travel, said the Red Sea region remained a top choice for South Africans booking diving trips. She said while there was an initial drop at the start of the conflict, travel had since picked up.
The Red Sea is popular for diving travel due to its low price point, proximity to South Africa and exceptional diving experience, according to Van Aardt.
“We’ve got a huge bounce back for next year, even though the war is still going on, and it’s probably elevated, it’s got even worse, but the travellers don’t seem to be bothered. It’s very strange,” she added.
