Since the end of the Covid-19 pandemic, Egypt's pyramids, Nile cruises and temples, as well as Jordan's desert, had been enjoying a resurgence in French tourism. In October, though, these two destinations closest to the Gaza Strip quickly came to a halt. "It's very simple," summarized Raouf Ben Slimane, founder of Thalasso no. 1 and Ôvoyages. "Over the past 10 days or so, as the crisis has intensified, we've seen cancellations and, above all, a real drop in bookings (in the order of 80% compared to 2022 over the same period) for these two countries close to the conflict zone," he pointed out, adding that of his 335,000 annual customers, 10,000 travel to these two countries.

"Tourists haven't been flocking to these destinations for over two weeks now," confirmed Stéphane Nicolas, Selectour's director of network development, who said he is hoping for "deferrals" to other destinations.

"Obviously, we are not expecting Jordan to be a roaring success this year," admitted Guillaume Linton, CEO of the tour operator Asia Voyages, which has already seen a 60% drop in bookings for the country over the past three weeks, compared with those made in September.

As far as cancellations of already-purchased trips, the trend is less pronounced. "From All Saints' Day [November 1] to the end of December, it was 10%," said Linton, who is also counting on a fallback effect toward countries such as India, Thailand and Vietnam. "We see all sorts of things," added Helmut Stuckelschweiger, head of Top of Travel, one of Jordan's leading travel agencies. "On Tuesday, October 24, a couple was due to leave from Pau for Amman, but the husband refused to board, and his wife left without him."

"During the All Saints' Day vacations, people who had booked a trip to Egypt are going, including those with children," said Bruno Abenin, sales director at Travel Evasion. Over the whole of 2023, the number of Egyptian holidays sold by his company is still set to beat a record set over 15 years ago, with 30,000 customers visiting there. But the boom came to an abrupt halt since the murder of French teacher Dominique Bernard in Arras, and the climate of anxiety that followed the airport bomb scares. "People are taking a wait-and-see attitude," he said, noting that since those events, "sales have cooled" and that bookings to Egypt for departures in April 2024 have dropped by around 40%.

In Israel, which received over 3 million visitors in the first nine months of the year (including 800,000 Americans), there was, not surprisingly, a severe decline in the number of tourists from October 7 onward. Several tour operators and cruise lines have canceled all their trips or stopovers until at least early 2024. The streets of Jerusalem and Bethlehem, which have always been extremely popular with travelers, now stand empty.

You have 30% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.