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The United States stands to lose millions in tourism revenues by travellers who will shun the country because of its attempt to ban the nationals of seven Muslim-majority countries, the head of a United Nations tourism body believes.
The result could be a boom for Gulf countries like Bahrain which is pushing to attract more tourists from the region and further afield aided by events such as the Spring of Culture and the coming F1 weekend at Bahrain International Circuit.
President Donald Trump did not explicitly mention his now-frozen travel ban during his recent address to the US Congress, nor did he bring up the revised immigration order he is expected to sign, although during the only portion of his speech dealing with terrorism he left no doubt he was laying down an argument for a new ban.
“My administration has been working on improved vetting procedures, and we will shortly take new steps to keep our nation safe - and to keep out those who would do us harm,” he said.
Taleb Rifai, a Jordanian who is Secretary-General of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation, believes the threatened action was partly the result of Americans not being well-travelled.
“I completely believe our friends across the Atlantic are developing this isolation attitude because they are not international travellers,” Rifai said in an interview in Athens.
“Sixty three per cent of US citizens don’t even have a passport so why are we surprised? If you travel your eyes open, your mind opens, you become a better person,” he said.
Mr Rifai said global tourism was not expected to be affected by the ban - tourists to the US would simply pick another destination instead.
However, he said the US had lost $185m in one month when the ban was introduced, and stood to lose tens of millions each month if similar policies followed. “Multiply that by 12 months - we are talking about a quarter of a billion (dollars) each month, which is tremendous.”
The losses were not necessarily from the countries directly affected. “You don’t want to go to places that you are not welcomed, why should you? Options are everywhere.”
