KOCHI: Arab tourism to the state is witnessing a surge this season with the overall flow witnessing a growth of 20 percent compared to past three years with Oman leading the chart. The season of flow in tourists from Arab countries begins in June which extends up to September middle. According to KSA Shamsudeen, chairman of Association of Arab Tour Operators, approximately over 35,000 tourists have already visited the state from the Arab countries. “The exact figures could be availed only after the end of the season,” he said.
According to him, the main tourist attraction continues to be Munnar, followed by Ayurveda and the backwaters and the houseboats. “Though there was a spike in overall arrivals, Saudi bucked the trend with a drop of 50 percent in arrivals from the country. There are reports of a lot of visa applications rejected from the country citing security reasons which has impacted on the tourist flow from the country,” said Mr Shamsudeen. This could be due to the IS factor. UAE and Oman have introduced e-visa while other Gulf nations are in the process of following suit while none have been given the facility of visa on arrival.
Oman is followed by Kuwait, UAE and Bahrain in routing tourists here while Qatar contributed the least. “It has nothing to do with the recent crisis there. Qataris are high end tourists who prefer European destinations,” said Shamsudeen. According to Dr Harish Pillai, CEO of Aster Medcity here, the medical tourism segment or medical value travelers from the Gulf also witnessed 20 percent growth.
“Apart from top hospitals, middle level hospitals in the hinterland became beneficiaries of this growth. We face competition from Singapore and Thailand in this regard but the shorter distance from the Gulf to us has come to our advantage,” he added. He said that the Central Government needs to be pressured to introduce visa on arrival for these countries and also reduce the visa processing fee to attract more tourists. Mr Shamsudeen said that the tourists who arrive here make a lot of purchases, especially textiles which are cheaper here.
