Israel – Hamas War Affecting Travelers’ Security Perception

The ongoing war between Israel and Hamas appears to be impacting travelers’ perception of safety at destinations near the conflict, found a report released this week by travel intelligence provider Mabrian Technologies.

More specifically, according to the Security Perception Index which measures the level of confidence expressed by visitors and potential travelers regarding a tourist destination based on social media comments, there has been a “dramatic drop” in the security perception of destinations surrounding the conflict area.

Indicatively, Jordan and Egypt have lost approximately 20 percent and 28 percent, respectively, in the last four weeks when compared to the week before the October 7 attacks.

Other destinations seeing a waning sentiment include Saudi Arabia, which has dropped 6 percent in the security confidence index, Tunisia (-9 percent) and Qatar (-18 percent).

The report’s analysts note that although some countries like Turkey (-6) are not Arab, those perceived as such by travelers are seeing a drop in security sentiment.

“Travel is one of the first industries to feel the brunt of a conflict, certainly at a national level. In such circumstances, it is vital to understand the sensitivity of different markets towards the situation. Destinations need to set in place an efficient communication strategy to recover confidence as soon as possible, for example in the case of destinations like Tunisia finding a way to show travelers that they are at zero risk of being caught up in the conflict directly,” said CMO Mabrian Carlos Cendra.

Greece

At the same time, however, some destinations like Greece, which is in closer proximity to the war, remain unaffected.

“Greece is much closer to the conflict zone than most of these countries impacted but the perception of the security there has not altered noticeably,” said Cedra.