UNWTO’s comments come as Euromonitor claims there has been “an immediate change in working practices” following the decision to ban travel to the US by nationals of seven countries – Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.
UNWTO, the United Nations’ specialised agency for tourism, has condemned the move, describing it as “contrary to the principles of freedom of travel”.
The organisation’s secretary general, Taleb Rifai, said: “Global challenges demand global solutions and the security challenges that we face today should not prompt us to build new walls; on the contrary, isolationism and blind discriminatory actions will not lead to increased security but rather to growing tensions and threats.
“Besides the direct impact, the image of a country which imposes travel bans in such a hostile way will surely be affected among visitors from all over the world and risk dumping travel demand to the US.”
Elsewhere, Euromonitor is claiming the executive order has triggered “an immediate change of working practices for many travel operators, such as the airline players”.
Nadejda Popova, travel project manager, said: “Among the airlines that could be heavily affected are carriers based in the Middle East, such as Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways which have been aggressively expanding their route network in the US market for the last couple of years amid heavy lobbying against their expansion from local US players.
“Equally, the ambiguity of these very latest developments introduced by president Trump is casting a shadow over the future travel demand to and from the US, especially as many trade representatives are concerned that such changes could bring similar types of retaliation from other countries in addition to any future trade frictions and the adoption of potentially more aggressive protectionist policies.
“The new executive order could also impact how the US is perceived as a tourism destination and how open to foreign travellers it will be in the future.”
